affirmative action

Colleges Must Follow the Law, but they Don't Need to Aid SCOTUS's Resegregation Agenda

by Richard Thompson Ford

From the architects of Jim Crow to William Rehnquist to John Roberts, conservatives have been able to use "color blind" principles to actively defend segregation. Colleges must consider this history in deciding how they adjust their admissions practices in response to SCOTUS's affirmative action ruling. 

SCOTUS Declares Race-Aware Admissions at Harvard, UNC Unconstitutional

The decision makes most race-based affirmative action admission policies at selective universities illegal. Historians discuss the decision, the history behind it, and the likely effects. 

SCOTUS's Affirmative Action Ruling no Coincidence; Court Seeks to Preserve Power of Small Elite

by Eddie R. Cole

Long before affirmative action was established, white elites fought to ensure that higher education benefitted themselves and their children. It is this political legacy that the Court has affirmed. 

SCOTUS's Affirmative Action Decision Caps a Decades-Long Backlash

by Jerome Karabel

A scholar of university admissions says that the decision will be a "monumental setback for racial justice" that is rooted in myths about the policy that have surfaced through decades of opposition to affirmative action. 

Richard Rothstein: The Problem with Class-Based Affirmative Action

While Black Americans are disproportionately poor, argues a scholar of discriminatory policy, the larger numbers of poor whites make it likely that class-based admissions preferences will fail to address racial disparities, including concentrated poverty in Black communities. 

Higher Ed Institutions Push Diversity to Avoid Dealing with Justice

by Ariana González Stokas

"Beginning with Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978, diversity became a proxy for the real work of remedying persistent and entrenched exclusions based on race and gender."

A Scholar Revisits Study of Campus Diversity 2 Decades Later

"Higher education has an extremely important role to play in helping people see things differently and in potentially helping to reduce racial inequality. But this requires cross-race interaction."

It's Time to Pivot to Socioeconomic Preferences in Admissions

by Richard D. Kahlenberg

Can admissions preferences to selective colleges for economically less advantaged applicants carry on the justice agenda of Martin Luther King while avoiding the wrath of the Roberts Court and a backlash by middle and working-class whites? 

A Secret Joke Clouds Harvard's Affirmative Action Case

Years ago, a Department of Education official sent a joke in the form of a mock memo from Harvard's admissions office to the school's dean of admissions. The joke referenced Asian stereotypes. Its exact content, as referenced in a sidebar in a federal court trial, had been sealed, and then protected by mutual agreement between the trial judge and the parties. Why?

A Prominent Story about How "Diversity" Entered College Admissions is Wrong

by Charles Petersen

The plaintiffs in a case seeking to outlaw affirmative action in admission policies are relying on a false narrative that "diversity" entered Harvard's admissions criteria as a way to limit the number of Jews admitted. While the existence of Jewish quotas is documented, the two aren't connected. 

Anthony Chen on the History of Affirmative Action in Higher Ed

The Northwestern historian's new book will arrive as the Supreme Court potentially decides the fate of affirmative action in college admissions. 

Is Harvard Actually Discriminating Against Asian Applicants?

by Julie J. Park

The data supporting the charge that Harvard's affirmative action policies amount to discrimination against Asian American students isn't as clear-cut as has been reported, says an education researcher who's investigated the policies. Blaming race-based affirmative action conceals the preferences given to legacies, athletes, and donors' children. 

Did Lewis Powell Sign a Slow Death Warrant for Affirmative Action?

The Times court reporter Emily Bazelon dives into the decision by Justice Powell to decide the 1978 Bakke case through reference to "diversity" instead of racial justice, a rationale that stripped away much of the unjust history of higher education. 

If Affirmative Action is Banned, Colleges Need to Do Wealth-Based Admissions Right

by Peter Dreier, Richard D. Kahlenberg and Melvin L. Oliver

Omitting family wealth from admissions decisions harms educational equity twice over, because wealth is so influential over opportunity and because it correlates so strongly with race. 

The Blindness of Colorblindness: Revisiting "When Affirmative Action was White"

by Ira Katznelson

The author of a key work on the way racial discrimination was built into the New Deal and postwar American social policy addresses objections to his book two decades later, and concludes that white supremacy and the influence of southern conservatives over legislation are still powerful explanations. 

Affirmative Action Cases May Force Colleges to Rethink Everything

Some experts warn of a possible lost generation of college students from underrepresented backgrounds if race-conscious admissions are prohibited. 

Defenders of Affirmative Action at Harvard Need to Confront Anti-Asian Biases

by Jonathan Zimmerman

It's clear that Harvard's criteria for rating prospective students connect with cultural traits and stereotypes in ways that disadvantage Asian American applicants. But keeping affirmative action and fixing these issues aren't mutually exclusive.

The Blindness of the Supreme Court's "Colorblindness"

by Drew Gilpin Faust

"Affirmative action opened a door I would walk through.... My professors, soon to be my colleagues, could imagine me among them because the very notion of women faculty had been given a legitimacy and a thinkability."

Can Universities Protect Diverse Admissions and Excellence?

by John Thelin

The vastly improved technology available to college admissions officers means that a handful of selective institutions can serve the interest of both nominal diversity and elite reproduction, while exacerbating the divide in elementary and secondary educational quality in the nation. 

Ties Documented Between Legal Activist Challenging Affirmative Action and White Nationalists

by Jean Guerrero

Both the activists behind two Supreme Court cases challenging affirmative action and the funding network that supports them have close ties to overt white nationalists and anti-immigration leaders, suggesting that the lawsuits are less about fairness for all than about advantage for whites.