Lucas Morel writes a wonderful essay in the latest issue of On Principle (the rest of the issue on line within days) on affirmative action/diversity. He starts with the Michigan case, but his point is far broader; how affirmative action is defended now as a way to promote racial diversity, rather than as a remedy for the "lingering effects" of discrimination. Read the whole thing, by all means. I’ll just give you his last paragraph:

"’America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let is so remain.’ So spoke Ralph Ellison’s ’invisible man’ in his landmark 1952 novel of the same name. Ellison discovered the diversity of individualism many years before it was hijacked by the affirmative activists. He saw that diversity could be a strength or weakness depending on society’s recognition and treatment of each individual. As the invisible man put it, ’Diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you’ll have no tyrant states.’ Racial minorities have suffered much as a group throughout American history. But the protection of their rights as individuals can come only by identifying themselves as American citizens. For when it comes to securing the rights of all Americans, it’s the minority of one — the individual — that is the focus of the Constitution’s protection. Only the equal protection of individual liberty can produce a diversity worthy of free human beings and society."