It’s been a little over a year since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, the race-conscious policy that governed college admissions for decades. In the case, Asian students argued that Harvard and UNC admissions discriminated against them and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court agreed.

Now, the enrollment numbers for the first year without affirmative action in charge are trickling in, and as predicted, Black and Hispanic numbers dropped while Asian acceptance rates went up. But that leaves us with the uncomfortable question: why do some demographics perform so much better than others academically?

Here to help me unpack this week, AEI Fellow Ian Rowe!

Follow Ian: https://x.com/IanVRowe