Ethnic diversity is clearly the purpose of affirmative action, which Young is defending against a long-overdue assault. But far from being essential to a college education, such diversity is a sure road to its destruction. Many people have a very superficial view of racism. They see it as merely the belief that one race is superior to another. It is much more than that.
Racism is the notion that one's race determines one's identity.
In turn, it leads them to condemn or praise others on the same basis. In fact, one can gain an authentic sense of pride only from one's own achievements, not from inherited characteristics. The spread of racism requires the destruction of an individual's confidence in his own mind. Such an individual then anxiously seeks a sense of identity by clinging to some group, abandoning his autonomy and his rights, allowing his ethnic group to tell him what to believe. This separatism has resulted in the spectacle of student-segregated dormitories and segregated graduations.