politicophile

It seems to me that this option would only make sense if being black or female made it more difficult for one to be accepted into the school or workplace. After correcting for the fact that black people are disproportionately poor, after correcting for the fact that they attend disproportionately attend inner-city schools, after correcting for the fact that they disproportionately live in poor, southern states, then you see whether a racial program makes sense. If it turns out that being from the inner city, for example, is actually what makes it more difficult for those students to be accepted, then inner-city residents should be compensated without regard to race, e.g.

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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty