Affirmative Action Revisited

Few issues seem able to polarise the nation as easily as affirmative action. The question of how, even whether, to rectify past discrimination in jobs, schools, and law against women and minorities is a perpetually vexing one. While some call for a quota system to set minimum percentages and numbers for minority positions, others say qualifications should take precedence over race when hiring an employee, admitting a student, or enforcing a law. Civil rights groups claim that specific quotas are often the only way to make up for systemic racism; those opposing such actions cite 'reverse racism' affecting whites. Recent federal, state, and local cases have challenged several affirmative action programs, particularly those involving school admissions. Decisions in Texas and Michigan, for example have struck down the use of racial standards in choosing which applicants to admit to universities. Bills have been introduced to eliminate affirmative action programs in many state legislatures, though there are some who want to 'mend, not end' affirmative action. Because this most crucial issue of race relations shows no signs of disappearing, the analysis in this book takes on added importance. Taking a look at affirmative action from a legal standpoint, the book addresses and assesses the history, current status, and future of affirmative action initiatives and programs. Such a study is much-needed in gathering information about a raging national debate.

Affirmative Action Law: An Introduction (Charles V. Dale); Affirmative Action Revisited: A Legal History and Prospectus (Charles V. Dale); The Supreme Court Decision in Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena; Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (Charles V. Dale); Small Disadvantaged Business Programs of the Federal Government (Mark Eddy); Higher Education and Affirmative Action; Recent Developments (Steven R. Aleman); Affirmative Action in Washington State: A Discussion and Analysis of Initiative 200 (Andorra Bruno); The Equal Rights Amendment: A Chronology (Leslie W. Gladstone); Affirmative Action and Diversity in Public Education -- Legal Developments (Charles V. Dale); Sex Discrimination and the United States Supreme Court: Recent Developments in the Law (Karen J. Lewis); Affirmative Action: Congressional and Presidential Activity, 1995-1998 (Andorra Bruno)

From a nationally recognized expert, a fresh and original argument for bettering affirmative action Race-based affirmative action had been declining as a factor in university admissions even before the recent spate of related cases arrived at the Supreme Court. Since Ward Connerly kickstarted a state-by-state political mobilization against affirmative action in the mid-1990s, the percentage of four-year public colleges that consider racial or ethnic status in admissions has fallen from 60 percent to 35 percent. Only 45 percent of private colleges still explicitly consider race, with elite schools more likely to do so, although they too have retreated. For law professor and civil rights activist Sheryll Cashin, this isn’t entirely bad news, because as she argues, affirmative action as currently practiced does little to help disadvantaged people. The truly disadvantaged—black and brown children trapped in high-poverty environs—are not getting the quality schooling they need in part because backlash and wedge politics undermine any possibility for common-sense public policies. Using place instead of race in diversity programming, she writes, will better amend the structural disadvantages endured by many children of color, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. In Place, Not Race, Cashin reimagines affirmative action and champions place-based policies, arguing that college applicants who have thrived despite exposure to neighborhood or school poverty are deserving of special consideration. Those blessed to have come of age in poverty-free havens are not. Sixty years since the historic decision, we’re undoubtedly far from meeting the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, but Cashin offers a new framework for true inclusion for the millions of children who live separate and unequal lives. Her proposals include making standardized tests optional, replacing merit-based financial aid with need-based financial aid, and recruiting high-achieving students from overlooked places, among other steps that encourage cross-racial alliances and social mobility. A call for action toward the long overdue promise of equality, Place, Not Race persuasively shows how the social costs of racial preferences actually outweigh any of the marginal benefits when effective race-neutral alternatives are available.