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18 

FISHER v. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

crimination  in  admissions  to  consider  the  fact  that  its 
“beneficiaries” are underperforming in the classroom).  “It 
is  a  fact  that  in  virtually  all  selective  schools  . . .  where
racial  preferences  in  admission  is  practiced,  the  majority
of  [black]  students  end  up  in  the  lower  quarter  of  their
class.”  S. Cole & E. Barber, Increasing Faculty Diversity:
The  Occupational  Choices  of  High-Achieving  Minority
Students 124 (2003).  There is no reason to believe this is
not  the  case  at  the  University.  The  University  and  its
dozens of amici are deafeningly silent on this point. 

Furthermore,  the  University’s  discrimination  does 
nothing  to  increase  the  number  of  blacks  and  Hispanics
who have access to a college education generally.  Instead, 
the  University’s  discrimination  has  a  pervasive  shifting
effect.  See  T.  Sowell,  Affirmative  Action  Around  the 
World  145–146  (2004).  The  University  admits  minorities 
who otherwise would have attended less selective colleges 
where  they  would  have  been  more  evenly  matched.    But, 
as a result of the mismatching, many blacks and Hispan-
ics who likely would have excelled at less elite schools are 
placed  in  a  position  where  underperformance  is  all  but 
inevitable  because  they  are  less  academically  prepared 
than the white and Asian students with whom they must 
compete.  Setting aside the damage wreaked upon the self-
confidence  of  these  overmatched  students,  there  is  no 
evidence that they learn more at the University than they 
would  have  learned  at  other  schools  for  which  they  were
better prepared.  Indeed, they may learn less.

The Court of Appeals believed that the University needed 
to enroll more blacks and Hispanics because they remained 
“clustered  in  certain  programs.”    631  F. 3d  213,  240 
(CA5  2011)  (“[N]early  a  quarter  of  the  undergraduate 
students  in  [the  University’s]  College  of  Social  Work  are 
Hispanic,  and  more  than  10%  are  [black].  In  the  College
of  Education,  22.4%  of  students  are  Hispanic  and  10.1% 
are [black]”).  But racial discrimination may be the cause