How do we reconcile multiracial coalition politics with special opportunities for minorities? In place of racial preferences, we need more imaginative conceptions of talent and merit.
Race & Ethnicity
Posted inEducation in America
Affirmative Actions’ California Afterlife
The debate about affirmative action at the University of California isn’t over yet.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
The Future of Black Representation
Good riddance to racial gerrymandering. The Supreme Court’s ruling against race as the predominant factor in districting is good news for blacks and Democrats.
Posted inEducation in America
Muddy Waters
New data show just how successful affirmative action programs have been at elite colleges and universities. Too bad those data might not have much relevance for the current debate over preferences in higher education.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
When Preferences Disappear
Proposition 209 signals the end of gender and racial favoritism in California, but it may also be the beginning of affirmative action by other means.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Affirmative Action at Berkeley
We continue the debate on affirmative action in response to Karen Paget’s “Diversity at Berkeley: Demogoguery or Demography” (TAP, Spring 1992) and Paul Starr’s “Civil Reconstruction: What to Do Without Affirmative Action” (TAP, Winter 1992) ADMISSIONS OMISSIONS BY LEWIS R. JONES T he University of California at Berkeley is one of the most selective large […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
The Diversity Defense
A pluralist, diverse society doesn’t depend on racial quotas at elite institutions. To pretend otherwise abuses the idea of merit and relies on tortured social science.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Essay: A Multicultural Nationalism?
Cross-national group loyalties can neither be wished away or erased. Yet the idea of the American nation is worth defending against multicultural attack. Herewith some ground rules for a culturally diverse nation.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Color-Blind Affirmative Action
If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, is social science the last resort of a losing cause? We may not know the answer for some time, but there’s no question that some of the heaviest hitters in the fight to preserve race preferences in college admissions are now desperately trying to convert the […]