In the Sunday New York Times Opinion Section Dan Slater asks, “Does Affirmative Action Do What It Should?” That depends, as Bill Clinton might say, on the definition of “affirmative action” and of what one thinks it should do. Slater mangles the former and muddles the latter, as I point out in Does Affirmative Action Work? on Minding The Campus today.
Previous Entry: Obamacare Penalizes Taxes UVa
Next Entry: Michigan’s Scofflaw Universities
From school admissions to hiring, affirmative action policies attempt to compensate for this country’s brutal history of racial discrimination by giving some minority applicants a leg up.
If our society uses the “brutal history” reasoning, then affirmative action would be extended to Mormons, the Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Jews, and other ethnic and racial minorities. The op-ed author should be clear on who is, and is not, to be included. I understand how the author’s justification applies to African Americans (generations of slavery) and Native Americans (relocation, many other sufferings), but as stated the op-ed does not limit the policy to these two groups. In other words, why the “some”? The op-ed author should also clarify what reasoning extends affirmative action to white Latinos of European descent.