An Affirmative Act?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl I. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
Dominant Color ◽  
Racial Preferences ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
Racial Narratives ◽  
First Offers

This chapter first offers an overview of contemporary debates over affirmative action to situate Obama's position on the issue. Obama's views on affirmative action expressed before and during the presidential campaign laid the foundation for his policies as president. Despite previously expressing support for affirmative action, Obama has eschewed mounting a vigorous defense of race-based remedies because in his assessment they are politically freighted, yield limited gains, and can be replaced by race-neutral measures that reduce overall inequality. The administration's position—which is ambivalent at best—has largely left uncontested the dominant color-blind framework and its affiliated racial narratives about “racial preferences,” thereby narrowing the space for broader social and economic reform.

The Informational Value of Affirmative Action in College Admissions

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric K Furstenberg
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
College Admissions ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Admissions Policies ◽  
Racial Preferences ◽  
Admissions Officers ◽  
The University ◽  
Admissions Process ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract This article develops a theoretical model of college admissions to investigate the effects of banning affirmative action admissions policies on the efficiency of the admissions process. Previous work in this area has shown that prohibiting affirmative action causes inefficiency when college quality is an increasing function of diversity. This article identifies an additional reason why colleges and universities use racial preferences in admissions, setting aside explicit demands for diversity. In the theoretical model, the racial identity of the applicants is relevant information for making inferences about an applicant's true academic ability. Preventing admissions officers from using this information results in inefficient selection of applicants, even if diversity does not explicitly enter the objective of the university. Thus, affirmative action is justified solely on informational grounds.

Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action: A Comparison of Color-Blind Versus Modern Racist Attitudes

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 1384-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Germine H. Awad ◽  
Kevin Cokley ◽  
Joseph Ravitch
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Color Blind

Case Study 2: The Fisher Supreme Court Cases against the University of Texas at Austin

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-188
Author(s):  
J. Scott Carter ◽  
Cameron D. Lippard
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Admissions Policies ◽  
Continued Use ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
The University ◽  
The U.S

This chapter looks at the most recent case to challenge affirmative action in college admissions policies in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin (2013 and 2016). Like chapter 5, the purpose of this chapter is to understand precisely what supporters and opponents are saying about the controversial policy. That is, how are they framing the debate surrounding affirmative action. However, this chapter looks at how framing may have changed over a decade later. We again focus on amicus briefs submitted by social authorities to the U.S. Supreme Court who had interests in the outcome of the cases. While we were interested in variation in types of frames used in these two cases (Fisher I and II) relative to the Gratz and Grutter cases, we mainly focused on authors continued use of both color-blind and group threat frames to state their positions. While some nuanced changes were observed from Gratz/Grutter to Fisher, our findings revealed a great deal of consistency from case to case and that the briefs continued to rely on color-blind and threat frames to characterize the policy. Particularly among opponents’ briefs, threat frames suggested that whites, in general, were losing in a country consumed by liberal agendas of diversification and entitlements only afforded to unqualified and ill-prepared non-whites.

Aversive Racism and Resistance to Affirmative Action: Perception of Justice Are Not Necessarily Color Blind

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 71-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey J. Murrell ◽  
Beth L. Dietz-Uhler ◽  
John F. Dovidio ◽  
Samuel L. Gaertner ◽  
Cheryl Drout
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Action Perception ◽  
Aversive Racism ◽  
Color Blind

Race, History, and Policy: African Americans and Civil Rights Since 1964

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Davis Graham
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
White Male ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Reverse Discrimination ◽  
Civil Rights Act ◽  
The Past ◽  
Racial Preferences ◽  
Abundant Evidence

Dwarfing all debates over civil rights policy and race relations during the three decades since 1964 has been the storm over affirmative action. Critics have argued that affirmative action in practice has meant requiring racial quotas, and hence practicing “reverse discrimination” against innocent (usually white male) third parties. This has been done, critics contend, in the name of a law, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that explicitly prohibited racial preferences. Proponents have countered that racism is so deeply rooted in American culture and institutions that mere nondiscrimination will perpetuate the injustice of the past. There is abundant evidence to support both contentions. The purpose of this essay is not to weigh the evidence and determine which side is correct. Ultimately such profound disagreements are not resolvable by logic and evidence alone, because they hinge on divergent assumptions about human nature and the purpose and limits of government. My more modest goal in this essay is to use the insights of history to understand why civil rights policy evolved in this dual fashion following the breakthrough legislation of 1964–68, and to try to assess the consequences.

Affirmative Action in Medical School: A Comparative Exploration

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Sander
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Medical School Admissions ◽  
Racial Preferences ◽  
Elite Colleges ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
Careful Investigation

AbstractA significant body of evidence shows that law schools and many elite colleges use large admissions preferences based on race, and other evidence strongly suggests that large preferences can undermine student achievement in law school and undergraduate science majors, thus producing highly counterproductive effects. This article draws on available evidence to examine the use of racial preferences in medical school admissions, and finds strong reasons for concern about the effects and effectiveness of current affirmative action efforts. The author calls for better data and careful investigation of several identified patterns.

Is Love Color-blind? Racial Blind Spots and Latinas’ Romantic Relationships

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jazmin A. Muro ◽  
Lisa M. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Partners ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Racial Stratification ◽  
Racial Ideologies ◽  
Racial Preferences ◽  
Racial Exclusion ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
College Educated ◽  
Blind Spots

The racial stratification literature is rife with examples of how color-blindness has become a dominant ideology among Whites to deny the continuing significance of race at work, school, and in everyday life. Less understood are the racial ideologies deployed by people of color. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews, we examine how college-educated Latinas acknowledge or deny the significance of race and racial hierarchies in decisions about whom to date. We find Latinas who stated an openness to dating men of all racial/ethnic backgrounds both acknowledged racism and its impact on their own lives and also held clear racial preferences. Additionally, participants used negative racial tropes about Black and Asian men to exclude them as romantic partners while also self-racializing to explain White men’s seeming reluctance to date them. To explain our findings, we apply the concept racial blind spots to show how participants simultaneously dismissed and drew upon color-blind ideology to justify patterns of racial exclusion. As we argue, racial blind spots explain how members of minoritized groups internalize aspects of the dominant racial ideology, involuntarily upholding the very system that oppresses them.

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