ABSTRACT
In his Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, Stephen Carter tells us that his academic record as an undergraduate at Stanford was strong, but not good enough to win him admission to the Harvard Law School. Shortly after he got a rejection letter from Harvard, though, he received a telephone call informing him that there had been a mistake in the review of his application. The admissions committee had somehow failed to notice that Mr. Carter was an African American, and that made all the difference. As an ordinary applicant, Carter did not make the grade. But the Harvard Law School had a lower standard for black applicants, so it was eager to have him.
