"Think I'm wrong ... back it up with something more substantive than neocon scare-mongering."
I'm not sure what you would accept. There have been many articles written on this subject. I was watching an interview with dean of admissions at a prominent California university where he was asked point blank whether a white or asian with an SAT of 1200 would be admitted. His response, "amost certainly not." He was then asked whether a black or hispanic would be accepted with the same SAT score. His response, "Almost certainly."
Universities step around their preferential treatment policies by just saying that the minority students they select are as qualified as the whites they reject (without evidence), but moreover by saying they need the minorities to make the campus more diverse, which they say will improve the education for all students who do get selected.
This isn't "neocon scaremongering." This is what the universities are saying to justify their position. The problem is that anyone who questions these policies is accused of being a racist, or an ethnocentrist, or a neocon scaremonger - or any of a number of other names that can be mustered in the hopes of squelching honest inquiry.
