Re "Who Decides Who's Black or Hispanic?" [April 9-15]:  Kudos
to Nat Hentoff for exposing the weak underbelly of affirmative
action in college admissions. As a person of mixed race I have
been plagued by this issue throughout my life—from the time I
discovered that Portuguese Americans like my mother were,
according to the L.A. Unified School District, not Hispanic, to
the case of my children, who are one-quarter Portuguese and half
Filipino (itself a mixed race). I always wondered why white
wasn't considered a color despite the fact that you can find it
in a crayon box.  Keep it up, Nat!  Sarah N. Logan, Utah
Hentoff quoted Justice Douglas's opinion in DeFunis v. Odegaard
in support of his opposition to the University of Michigan
affirmative action program. It is worth noting that Douglas's
opinion was a complex one. He felt the LSAT and other criteria
for entry were not racially neutral. Therefore, he stated, "how
far the reintroduction into educational curricula of ancient
African art and history has re