Letters | 28 June 2018 | The Spectator

Harvard’s racial quotas

Sir: While I largely agree with Coleman Hughes that racial quotas are counterproductive (‘The diversity trap’, 23 June), he misuses Martin Luther King Jr to buttress his argument. King said that he hoped his descendants would ‘be judged…by the content of their character’, not by their standardised test scores. The grim pursuit of purely quantifiable ratings for intelligence and achievement in American schools — by Asians and white Protestants alike — is an even greater scourge these days than the illiberal goal of ‘diversity’ at any cost. Harvard admissions may well be covertly, and unfairly, anti-Asian, but by taking into consideration ‘courage’ and ‘kindness’, they might also be doing the right thing.
John R. MacArthur

New York

The purity of bitcoin

Sir: Martin Vander Weyer (‘The myth and menace of cryptocurrencies’, 23 June) doesn’t see the Hayekian purity of a denationalised form of money: bitcoin. This is surprising as he claims to be a Thatcherite. ‘No sensible citizen should dabble in this dark arena,’ he says. Well, maybe the electricity usage in mining bitcoin is worth it. Terrible monetary regimes are plentiful worldwide, despite ‘stewardship’ by the Bank for International Settlements. Ordinary Venezuelans and Zimbabweans love bitcoin. Scalability issues are also sorted now, thanks to the Lightning Network. But what do I know? I’m an ex-Bank of England payments expert ‘libertarian dopesmoker’. Let’s just stick with TSB making our payments.
James Hulme

Tunbridge Wells, East Sussex

Profs on the panel

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Patrick West

Trans activists won’t be silenced by the Supreme Court ruling

Sir: Norman Lebrecht is concerned about the inclusion of music professors on international competition juries because of the possibility of the quid pro quo trade-off (‘You vote for my pupil, I’ll vote for yours’, 23 June). In evidence, he tells us of the exploits of the prominent Russian violin teacher, Zakhar Bron, whose own pupils place remarkably well in the competitions he judges or sponsors.