Kirk Kolbo, who represents the

Kirk Kolbo, who represents the plaintiffs in the race-discrimination lawsuits against the University of Michigan, emailed us to say that university president Mary Coleman wasn’t freelancing when she made her bizarre comments about how race determines where you live, where you work and whom you work with. On the contrary, she was echoing the university’s party line, as stated on the University of Michigan Law School’s website. There is one difference between the official version on the website and Ms. Coleman’s comments, however. On the law school’s website, it says that: “Race continues to be a uniquely important factor in American life. When individuals meet on the street, when they decide where to live, when they decide whom to befriend, when they decide whom to work with, race matters.” Ms. Coleman strengthened this formulation to say that race “determines…where you live, where you go to work and with whom you work.” I suppose this reflects what she really thinks, as opposed to the similar but more weaselly language crafted by lawyers for the law school’s website. Much as the preference given to certain ethnic groups actually determines their admission into universities, as opposed to merely influencing it.