Asian-Americans encompass a variety of backgrounds and cultures, arising from places as different as Japan and Bangladesh, but none of them, it appears, contributes to diversity. Just the opposite. One of the little-noticed facts about racial preferences in university admissions is that applicants of Asian ancestry are penalized, not helped. Not because they've suffered less discrimination on average than, say, Latinos. The diversity Michigan seeks is an oddly one-dimensional kind.
Race overrides everything else.
You might think the law school would gain a valuable perspective by including Barbara Grutter, a middle-aged mother of two who had worked as a corporate manager and consultant before deciding to return to school 18 years after getting her undergraduate degree. But Grutter is white, and though her grades and test scores would have virtually assured admission for a black applicant, they were not enough to get a Caucasian through the gate. So she sued the university, and won, on the grounds that she had been the victim of racial discrimination. Using race as a tie-breaker when two candidates are otherwise comparable might be a tolerable approach. But Michigan, like other schools, goes way beyond that.