Have you noticed that when sensible, neutral, and longstanding rules and policies don’t produce the racial outcomes desired by the left, it calls for changing those rules and policies? Plagued by a lack of solid family structure and constructive role models, young Black studentsas a class behave more poorly than White students and thus are disciplined more often. The solution? Change the disciplinary rules and tolerate disciplinary breakdowns — with disastrous consequences for students Black and White.

When Black students apply for college they perform abysmally as a class on the SAT. The solution? Race norm their scores, effectively adding hundreds of points when comparing their performance to that of White applicants. Or, if you are a state university like the University of Texas (Austin) finesse the SAT by admitting the top 10 percent of students in terms of grades at every high school in the state.

When Blacks are finished with school, as a class they commit a disproportionate number of crimes and thus are incarcerated in disproportionate numbers. The solution? Lobby for changes in the criminal law, including shorter prison sentences. (Never mind that, as Jim Scanlan pointed out in a letter to the American Statistical Association, modifications that reduce adverse criminal justice outcomes tend to increase, not decrease, racial disparities in outcomes. The point is to let Black lawbreakers off the hook, not to cure “disparate impact.”)

And while you’re at it, try to discredit the police force as racist.

The phenomena I have described are part of what I call the war on standards. Because adherence to reasonable standards is the hallmark of a successful people (as it is on a personal level), the war on standards is insidious.

Now, in the aftermath of the Freddie Gray trials, we see the same imperative of outcomes that drives the war on standards prompting stirrings for something potentially more disturbing — an attack on liberty.