Over at Above the Law, David Lat breaks down the recent insider-trading conviction of a former Harvard law student who once forged his academic transcript. [The Mathew Martoma Case, By The Numbers, February 8, 2014]

What impressed me was how well the case and its players represent what I'll call the high-achieving nonwhites of New America.

Defendant Mathew Martoma:  Indian (dot not feather)

• U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara:  Indian (dot not feather)
• Defense Attorney Roberto Braceras:  White Hispanic
• Attorney Marc Mukasey:  Jewish
• David Lat:  Filipino

Braceras is the son-in-law of Jose Cabranes, a federal circuit court judge, and Mukasey is the son of former Attorney General Michael Mukasey.  Martoma's employer, SAC Capital, was sprinkled with Steinbergs and Cohens.  And so on.

The prosecution itself—that of an Indian-American by an Indian-American—reminds me of Italian-American Rudy Giuliani going after Italian mobsters.

This ethnic mix reveals the ascendant power players of today:  Jewish, Indian, Asian, some white.  Absent are blacks and Hispanics (unless, of course, they're Caucasians bearing Spanish names) and your more standard-issue, non-exotic whites (straight, Christian, Midwestern, etc.)

Note how these players build the same generational power-passing once practiced by WASPs—but which of course do not catch the same criticism.

Read the alumni magazine of any Ivy League school and you'll see the same pattern:  Josh Weinstein marries Grace Wu, over and over.