In short, the term "minority" as used by most colleges has no
clear-cut definition, no consistent principle, and no coherent
theory behind it. Minority students are whomever they choose to
consider minority students. In practice, the term usually refers
to whatever racial or ethnic groups have a statistical
"representation" the colleges wish to increase beyond what it
would be if the usual admission standards were applied. Blacks
are the prime example, but much of what is said about blacks
applies as well to Hispanics and American Indians. In this
chapter the main focus will be on black students, simply because
more information is available on them. However, there will also
be a separate discussion of Asian American students, because
they are often treated differently from either blacks or whites
by the colleges themselves. "The races in the Northern
universities have grown more separate since the sixties,"
according to Professor Allan Bloom in his best-selling book, The
Closing of the American Mind. He is no