That approach ignores the very possibility that what happened to people before they reached an employer—or a college admissions office or a crime scene—may have had a “disparate impact” on the kinds of people they became and the kinds of skills, values, habits and limitations they bring with them to the places where statistics are later collected. The political system in the United States did not create differences in political skills and experience between the Irish, the Italians and the Jews. Those differences existed before they set foot on American soil, and persisted for generations after
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