The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) requires its member schools to "seek to have a faculty, staff, and student body which are diverse with respect to race, color, and sex." The American Bar Association (ABA) Standards provide that to obtain ABA approval, law schools must demonstrate "by concrete action, a commitment to providing full opportunities for the study of law and entry into the profession by qualified members of groups (notably racial and ethnic minorities) which have been victims of discrimination in various forms." The AALS and ABA are fully aware, however, that very few black applicants meet the ordinary admission requirements of highly selective law schools. This means that obtaining an acceptable proportion of black law students requires that lower admission standards be applied to blacks than to whites. The result of such race norming in law school admission is to produce an entering class with two separate students bodies admitted by different criteria and identifiable by race. A racially preferential admissions policy is a prescription for a loss rather than a gain for blacks in self-respect and the respect of others. Inevitable effects are heightened racial consciousness and frustration, resentment, and self- segregation on the part of blacks. These are some of the reasons "affirmative action" is a disastrous policy in higher education and why, when practiced, it is practiced largely by stealth; and why, when defended, it is defended with irrational and deceptive justifications. 17 footnotes