As The Wall Street Journal notes this morning via Unfair Park, defendants in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial say what they did was basically OK because, historically, not enough “minority contractors” have been tapped for development work. Which leads to the admittedly naive question: Why the hell should skin color play any role at all in who pours your concrete and bangs in your nails? If jobs were awarded instead based on two fair simple criteria–who can do the best job, for the best price–wouldn’t all these (alleged) opportunities to game the system dry up?