Want To Get Into Harvard? Show Off Your Trauma

In this clip, Tyler Austin Harper and guest host John McWhorter discuss university admissions policies that incentivize students to engage in performances of their identity. In the ever-tightening race for admission into elite schools, Tyler and John agree, applicants who can fulfill universities' desire for a "diverse" student body stand a better chance. With explicit racial identification outlawed by last year's Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court decision, essays that play up students' identity-based struggles have become one of the only ways for applicants to signal their "diverse"...