Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/226

18 A plus, by its nature, can certainly matter to an admissions case. But make no mistake: When an applicant chooses to disclose his or her race, UNC treats that aspect of identity on par with other aspects of applicants’ identity that affect who they are (just like, say, where one grew up, or medical challenges one has faced). And race is considered alongside any other factor that sheds light on what attributes applicants will bring to the campus and whether they are likely to excel once there. A reader of today’s majority opinion could be forgiven for misunderstanding how UNC’s program really works, or for missing that, under UNC’s holistic review process, a Whitewhite [sic] student could receive a diversity plus while a Blackblack [sic] student might not.

UNC does not do all this to provide handouts to either John or James. It does this to ascertain who among its tens