The recent legal challenges to affirmative action in higher education illustrate that moral arguments, such as that affirmative action compensates for past wrongs, no longer justify it. So proponents of affirmative action have changed strategies and now use social science to prove the necessity of affirmative action. This article situates the study of diversity within the sociology of knowledge, reposing the question about the educational impact of racial diversity in a new light. The author does not question whether racial diversity is important, but rather the very foundations upon which scientific practices are based. He argues that social science produces and naturalizes racial differences, legitimates the institutional processes that use them, and ensures their continued relevance in organizing society. The purpose of this article is not to provide answers to the perplexing problem of racial disparities in higher education; rather, its purpose is to encourage educators to think differently about scientific practices that may unintentionally reinforce those disparities.