Here’s a reason to temper premature celebrations of the end of affirmative action. Joe Klein writes:

Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, is heartsick over the prospect that the Supreme Court might end the forcible imposition of integration in the society. But Lewis is a sunny soul, and he told me, “Society has come so far, and we’re certainly not going backward.” Even if racial preferences are ruled unconstitutional, “people are going to find a way to do it anyway.” The Congressman is quite right. Diversity has been written into the dna of American life; any institution that lacks a rainbow array has come to seem diminished, if not diseased. In fact, there is a general acknowledgment, in all but the most troglodytic precincts, that our racial diversity is a major American competitive advantage in the global economy. And so, if universities can give special preferences to students from exotic locales like Casper, Wyo.—yes, you, Dick Cheney—they will find a way to make some exceptions for students from Harlem. In the end, the conservatives may be right: racial distinctions should not be written into law. But the embrace of our fabulous polychromatic smorgasbord has become an essential part of American society. We cherish it too much to let it slip away.

However, I will admit that for them to be talking this way means that they are anticipating the possible end of affirmative action in the legal sense and resigning themselves to it, instead of charging racism. This shows that attitudes on this issue may be changing and adapting. And for Klein to admit that it’s not right to have racial preferences written into the law is something of a victory in itself.