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Diversity, Law & Race | Racial Profiling

Diversity, Law & Race

• Baker, Donald P. "Closed." Washington Post Magazine, March 4, 2001, pp. 8-13,21-27.
  One of the crucial but lesser-known events in the struggle for desegregation of public schools in the U.S. took place in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. In April 1951, the students at the all-black Moton High School staged a walkout to protest the school's overcrowded and inadequate conditions, demanding facilities equal to those of the newer all-white high school. An NAACP lawsuit to compel the Prince Edward County School Board to desegregate the schools became part of the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, in which "separate-but-equal" schools were ruled unconstitutional. Virginia defied the ruling, enacting a series of "states' rights" laws known as Massive Resistance. In 1959, Prince Edward County, faced with court-ordered integration, closed the public schools, and opened a private academy for the county's white students, funded with state tuition grants. The Farmville public schools remained closed until 1964, depriving black students of five years of education, although many went out of state or enrolled in makeshift schools formed by the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers). Only recently have attempts been made at reconciliation between the black and white communities in Farmville. A reenactment is scheduled for April 23, 2001, on the fiftieth anniversary of the walkout. Moton High School has been designated an historic landmark, and has a Web site (www.moton.org) dedicated to its place in the history of the civil-rights movement.
  
  
• Banner-Haley, Charles Pete, et al. "Black and Affluent: Special Report." The World & I, vol. 14, no. 2, February 1999, pp. 32-53.
  This four-part "special report" examines the emergence of a strong, vibrant black middle class in the United States, focusing on the remarkable progress of the past 5 years. In "The Hopes and Fears of the Black Middle Class," Banner-Haley of Colgate University reports on the size, visibility and influence of the black middle class, emphasizing that black middle-class values can make a difference. In "The Rise of the Black Middle Class," Robert L. Harris, Jr., of Cornell University discusses rising black economic power, cautioning that black wealth may be difficult to sustain because it is based on income rather than assets. In "How to Appeal to Under-30 Black Americans," Charles Ellison, a former Republican Party speech writer, argues progress can be made through "creative economic solutions rather than antiquated 'civil rights' proposals." Syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams agrees with Ellison, challenging whites and blacks to move beyond rhetoric and engage in rational and reasonable discourse about the right direction for America in "Reach Out: Recognize the Genuine Diversity of Black Americans."
  
  
• Becker, Paul J. States Tackle Hate Crimes State Government News, vol. 44, no. 3, March 2001, pp. 22-24.
  Hate crimes laws have been around since 1981, when the Anti-Defamation League drafted a model hate-crime statute that called for enhancing the penalty for crimes motivated by bias and requiring states to keep a database about such crimes. To date, forty states and the District of Columbia have enacted hate-crime laws based on the ADL��s model statute. Hate crime laws generally have two parts, one that identifies the groups protected and one that identifies the offenses. The author, a professor of criminology at Morehead State University, examines the arguments for and against hate-crime laws, noting that they will continue to evolve as they are tested in court.
  
  
• Bennett, William J.; et al. "Is Affirmative Action on the Way Out? Should It Be? -- A Symposium." Commentary, vol. 105, no. 3, March 1998, pp. 18-57.
  Twenty writers, critics, and scholars unsheathe their polemical long knives and carve away at the body of affirmative action in this lengthy symposium, which ranges from the origins of affirmative action in the Kennedy-Johnson administrations to its recent elimination in California via Proposition 209. Commentary doesn't pretend to be neutral: thirteen of the offerings are harshly critical of affirmative action to achieve racial diversity, and of the Clinton administration's efforts to "mend not end" the program. Nevertheless, contributors on both sides of the issue recognize the complexdilemma that American society faces in its efforts to ensure opportunity and fairness for racial and ethnic minorities, yet not discriminate against individuals in the name of these very same ideals.
  
  
• Camarota, Steven A. "Immigrants in the United States - 2000: A Snapshot of American's Foreign Born Population." Spectrum, vol. 74, no. 2, Spring 2001, pp. 1-5.
  Analysis of the Census Bureau's March 2000 Current Population Survey shows that 28.4 million immigrants now live in the United States, the largest number ever recorded in the nation's history, and a 43 percent increase since 1990. Immigrants now account for more than one in ten U.S. residents, the highest percentage in 70 years, says the author. After briefly surveying the impact of these numbers on U.S. society, Camarota concludes that the large number of immigrants now living in the United States represents an enormous challenge --and immigration's impact will continue to grow if current trends in immigration are allowed to continue.
  
  
• Cohen, Carl. "Race Preference and the Universities -- A Final Reckoning?" Commentary, vol. 112, no. 2, September 2001, pp. 31-39
  Cohen, a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, examines two court cases, soon to be argued on appeal, involving university admissions. In each case, a white woman who was denied admission charges that the university's practice of giving preferences to minorities in admissions decisions violated her constitutional rights. Cohen notes that for minority students, the odds of admission to the university were hundreds of times greater than the odds for majority students with the same academic credentials. How the court rules on these two very different cases will likely depend on how it interprets an earlier court decision that ruled that diversity might serve as a "compelling" state interest in admissions decisions. Ultimately, these cases are virtually certain to be appealed to the highest court, says Cohen.
  
  
• Cose, Ellis, et al. "The Good News about Black America -- And Why Many Blacks Aren't Celebrating." Newsweek, June 7, 1999, pp. 28-40.
  By many measures, now is the best time to be black in America: employment and homeownership by blacks is up, violent crime is down, fewer blacks than ever are on welfare, and more blacks than ever are in college. Many inner-city neighborhoods, written off as hopeless after the riots of the 1960s, are being rejuvenated, and are becoming "magnet" addresses for the black professional class. This thoughtful article, accompanied by several sidebars by other authors, praises the gains that blacks have made in recent years, yet sounds a cautionary note about the many persistent problems that still abound, such as the record numbers of young black males in prison. The author contends that a part of the problem may be that the traditional black leadership still retains the confrontational outlook of the civil-rights era. Many blacks feel that despite their gains, black America is still "a place apart", and fear that their progress could be jeopardized by an economic downturn.
  
  
• Early, Gerald. "Understanding Integration." Civilization, vol. 3, no. 5, October/November 1996, pp. 51-59.
  Early, of Washington University in St. Louis, traces the history of integration in the United States, from Jackie Robinson's pivotal 1947 breakthrough into professional baseball's major leagues to the 1995 Million Man March. He says both blacks and whites "sentimentalize, even romanticize, the communal power of black life before integration, in large measure because they feel that integration has been a disappointment and has run its course."
  
  
• Edwards, Tamala M. "Throwing the Book at Race." Time, September 8, 1997, pp. 60-63.
  A new book on the history and current state of racial progress by social scientists Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom -- America In Black And White: One Nation Indivisible -- is causing considerable debate in the wake of its publication. It is based on seven years of research,and modeled after Gunnar Myrdal's landmark 1944 racial survey, An American Dilemma. Offering alternative explanations to those commonly employed for racial disparities, and making the case against affirmative action, they posit that fundamentally, blacks and whites are better than, and different from, their stereotypes across the social landscape. Critics, however, counter that, for example, the authors do not have any answer for the fact that even high-achieving blacks decry a lack of progress. Moreover, to balance the concrete data they have amassed on black attitudes, the Thernstroms offer, for whites, answers given pollsters -- generally regarded as a less reliable measurement. Nonetheless, by the data it has included and the controversy it has stirred (the article includes responses by advocates and opponents of the Thernstroms' thesis), it may cause both blacks and whites to reassess their views of the world. The article is currently available on the Internet via the following URLs: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970908/nation.throwing_the_.html
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970908/nation.procon.html
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970908/nation.white_mens_bu.html
  
  
• Etzioni, Amitai. "Some Diversity." Society, vol. 35, no. 5, July/August 1998, pp. 59-61.
  Dr. Etzioni, Director of The George Washington Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, argues that despite the growing multiculturalism in U.S. society there still are "social, cultural and legal elements [that constitute] the framework that holds together the diverse [American] mosaic: A commitment by all parties to the democratic way of life, to the Constitution and its Bill of Rights and to mutual tolerance."
  
  
• Forbath, William E.; Torres, Gerald. "The 'Talented Tenth' in Texas." The Nation, vol. 265, no. 20, December 15, 1997, pp. 20- 24.
  The "Ten Percent Plan" is provided for under a new Texas law which allows the top ten percent of each secondary school graduating class to attend the University of Texas, an elite public institution. The authors, both professors at the University of Texas, Austin, hope that the law will, at least in part, rectify the racial unbalance caused by the federal appeals court decision to ban affirmative action.
  
  
• Frey, William H. "Migration to the South Brings U.S. Blacks Full Circle." Population Today, vol. 29, no. 4, May/June 2001, 2 pp.
  "Blacks ended the twentieth century by returning to the region that they spent most of the century leaving," reports Frey, of the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center. Their return reinforces the South's distinct racial profile as a mostly white-black region. Census 2000 numbers show that during the 1990s the black population of the South grew more than in the other three regions of the United States combined. Blacks were not only attracted by the South's booming economy, low-density living, and warmer climate, but by historic roots in the region, the existence of a growing black middle class, and an improved racial climate, says Frey.
  
  
• Frey, William H.; Hicks, Louis; Soper, John C. "Taking the Measure of America: Special Report." The World & I, vol. 16, no. 5, May 2001, pp. 18-35.
  ��The 2000 Census and other surveys reveal an America more populous, more educated, healthier, and wealthier than ever before and yet still divided by race, nationality, and economic status,�� say the editors. In this special report three experts examine the possible economic and political impact of the census findings. William Frey looks at the migration of middle-class white and African Americans to new areas of the country and the impact of these demographic movements on U.S. politics. Louis Hicks examines how wisely the United States might use its world dominance in the next century, and John Soper discusses what he believes are the four key issues facing America in the next decade: economic growth, government entitlements, immigration, and education.
  
  
• Fullinwider, Robert K. "Civil Rights and Racial Preferences: A Legal History Of Affirmative Action." Report from the Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy, vol. 17, nos. 1 & 2, Winter/Spring 1997, pp. 9-20.
  A review of the history of affirmative action since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 suggests that what began as nonpreferential actions to offset the consequences of racial discrimination moved toward a range of preferential actions that visited discrimination on non-minority citizens. Recent legal decisions suggest that American society does not favor the use of racial preferences.
  
  
• Galston, William A. "An Affirmative Action Status Report: Evidence and Options." Report from the Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy, vol. 17, nos. 1 & 2, Winter/Spring 1997, pp. 2-9.
  This history of affirmative-action policies in American society, with particular focus on programs in the U.S. military and the University of California system, highlights several key areas of contemporary debate concerning this approach to racial justice. These include conflicts between means and ends, the question of whether transitional measures should become permanent, and the public's voice in affirmative-action policies. The author, director of the University of Maryland's Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, offers a number of policy options that would address shortcomings of current affirmative-action programs and also provide alternatives -- both aimed at increasing opportunity rather than mandating results.
  
  
• Glazer, Nathan. "In Defense of Preference." The New Republic, vol. 218, no. 14, April 6, 1998, pp. 18-25.
  The author, a noted critic of social policy, calls the battle over affirmative action "a contest between a clear principle on the one hand and a clear reality on the other." He says the principle is that ability and merit -- not race, ethnicity or sex -- should prevail when one applies for jobs or admission to selective colleges and universities. The reality, he says, is that strict adherence to the principle would significantly reduce the numbers of African Americans getting jobs or admission to elite institutions of learning. Although "considerable progress" has been made in African American students' college admission test scores during the past 15 years, the author says they still lag behind their white counterparts. He warns that abolishing affirmative action, and reducing the admission of many African Americans to selective universities "would undermine the legitimacy of American democracy" because "these institutions have become, for better or worse, the gateways to prominence, wealth and power in American society."
  
  
• Glazer, Nathan. "Race and Ethnicity in America." Journal of Democracy, vol. 11, no. 1, January 2000, pp. 95-102.
  When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States during the early 1800's and wrote his well-known book, Democracy in America, he was well aware that American democracy's failure to embrace blacks and Native American Indians threatened to bring the "great American experiment" to an end. He saw no solution to the plight of the Indians, and foresaw that the abolition of slavery would not in itself solve the problem of relations between races. The author, professor emeritus of education and sociology at Harvard University, reflects on Toqueville's writings, noting that even though difficulties Tocqueville foresaw are still with us, democracy has shown the capacity to address them over time.
  
  
• Gose, Ben. "A Sweeping New Defense of Affirmative Action." The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 45, no. 4, September 18, 1998, pp. A46-A48.
  In a new book that is the most comprehensive glimpse thus far at how students who benefitted from racial preferences have fared both during and after college, the former presidents of Princeton and Harvard Universities find that race-sensitive admissions policies have achieved the goals of providing promising careers for African American students and promoting interracial interaction on elite campuses. The book, The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions (Princeton University Press), by William G. Bowen and Derek Bok, is based on a study of more than 45,000 students who entered selective colleges at the beginning of the 1976-77 or 1989-90 academic years. Bowen and Bok maintain that those students who might have been turned away by selective colleges if race had not been a factor have accomplished much in life. In addition, the authors say that the findings disprove the claim by some opponents of affirmative action that black students with low test scores would be better off at less-selective colleges, where their scores would more closely parallel the average. Several conservative scholars, however, question the objectivity of the authors with regard to the queries posed. It is anticipated that the data in the book will be seized upon by both advocates and opponents of affirmative action.
  
  
• Graglia, Lino A., et al. "The Long Hyphen: Black Separation vs. American Integration." Society, vol. 33, no. 3, March/April 1996, pp. 7-47.
  This symposium contains nine articles by U.S. scholars on the effects of the Supreme Court's 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the intent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the continuing debate about affirmative action.
  
  
• Henderson, George. "Race in America: Dreams Realized and Deferred." The Phi Kappa Phi Journal, vol. 80, no. 2, Spring 2000, pp. 12-15.
  "At some time in their history, all ethnic groups in the United States have been the underclass. Also, at different times, all ethnic groups have been both the oppressed and the oppressors," writes George Henderson, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Oklahoma. After examining the ethnic impact of immigration to the United States, from the Europeans who immigrated just after the Revolutionary War to today's influx of peoples from Asia and Latin America, Henderson maintains that the United States is at a crossroads in its race relations. Noting that today's prosperity has not yet lifted the masses of peoples of color, he challenges today's Americans to build a better nation for all people.
  
  
• Hendrie, Caroline. "In Black and White." Education Week, vol. 18, no. 28, March 24, 1999, pp. 25-33.
  In 1954, the historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which declared segregated public schools unconstitutional, opened the door to equal education for blacks in the United States. However, the desegregation debate didn't end with the High Court's ruling in Brown, and nearly half a century later, whether the nation has yet figured out how to end segregation remains a matter of impassioned debate, says Hendrie. She reviews the campaign to desegregate U.S. Schools that followed the Brown decision, noting that much of the public and many experts feel it has fallen far short of its goals. The article is part of the Education Week series "Lessons of the Century -- the Struggle for Integration."
  
  
• "How Race Was Lived in America: A Decade-By-Decade Selection of Articles." New York Times web site), 2000. Registration may be required; access is free
  A selection of articles ranging from the 1880's until early 2000. Articles are part of a larger New York Times web site, "Race is America: How Race Is Lived in America."
  
  
• Jackson, Jesse L., Sr. "Race and Racism in America." The Phi Kappa Phi Journal, vol. 80, no. 2, Spring 2000, pp. 9-11.
  The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., a long-time civil-rights crusader and founder of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, which strives to attain justice for those who have suffered from many forms of disadvantage, reflects on his participation in -- and the successes of -- the civil rights movement, noting that whites even more than blacks have benefited from laws passed during the 1980s that have prohibited discrimination against the elderly and disabled, and that laws that protect disadvantaged groups have allowed all these groups in society to compete on a move level playing field. Although racism still exists, Jackson notes there is currently a counter-movement aimed at eliminating laws that protect disadvantaged groups. In the first half of the twenty-first century minorities will account for 90 percent of U.S. population growth, says Jackson. And in this increasingly multicultural society, Jackson's assessment that "the most powerful manifestation of the struggle for justice occurred when peoples of all colors came together to pool their power," takes on new importance.
  
  
• Jacoby, Tamar. "An End to Counting by Race?" Commentary, vol. 111, no. 6, June 2001, pp. 37-40.
  The change in the 2000 census form, which, for the first time, allowed persons to designate more than one category when indicating their race, was the product of a long and bitter political battle that began in the early 1990s, recounts Jacoby. ��For the better part of the 1990s, minority activists and their allies in the federal government mounted an unstinting effort to block any change in the census form,�� fearing that a mixed-race box would threaten their power to advocate for their group. But many Americans of mixed heritage checked more than one box on the 2000 census, indicating a major shift in how Americans are choosing to identify themselves. The author, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, examines the shifting attitudes about race in the United States.
  
  
• Jencks, Christopher; Phillips, Meredith. "America's Next Achievement Test: Closing the Black-White Test Score Gap." The American Prospect, no. 40, September/October 1998, pp. 44-53.
  The median standardized-test scores of black students in the United States remain lower than those of white students, despite the political changes of the past 30 years, note Christopher Jencks, of Harvard University's Kennedy school of Government, and Meredith Phillips, of the University of California at Los Angeles. Jencks and Phillips believe that improving the test scores of black students would substantially reduce racial inequality in educational attainment and earnings, and allow colleges, professional schools, and employers to phase out controversial preferences. They analyze the factors traditionally attributed to the test-score gap, arguing that they can and should be changed. Suggesting that the gap can be attributed to students' social and educational environments, they suggest how state and local efforts could help close the black-white gap.
  
  
• Jenkins, Alan. "Leveling the Playing Field: An Opportunity Agenda." The Nation, vol. 270, no. 9, March 6, 2000, 4 pp.
  In the wake of the erosion of Affirmative Action in the United States, new proposals and policies are emerging that are aimed at maintaining or increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of higher education. Jenkins, of the Ford Foundation, discusses these proposals and pending law suits aimed at leveling the playing field. He finds these proposals, such as the Texas plan to ensure that the top 10 percent of all high school students are admitted to state universities, both imperfect and exciting. He notes that many of these newer efforts attack discrimination while reaching out to all disadvantaged communities, reflecting an understanding that race, gender and poverty are intimately intertwined. However, in closing he cautions that even if these initiatives succeed, "they will not produce the fundamental transformation our educational system needs."
  
  
• Kahlenberg, Richard D. "In Search of Fairness: A Better Way." The Washington Monthly, vol. 30, no. 6, June 1998, pp. 26-30.
  The author, a fellow at the Center for National Policy, suggests that race-based affirmative action as a basis for college admissions could with great benefit to minority students be replaced by a system that considers socioeconomic status along with academic merit. He cites preliminary evidence from the law school at the University of California at Los Angeles, which last year implemented a race-blind affirmative action system. The school ended up admitting more than twice as many black students as it would have under a system based on grades and test scores. "In the end, then," he says, "a system of admissions that looks at talent plus obstacles seems to provide the best approximation of equal opportunity."
  
  
• Karp, Jonathan. "The Children's Crusade." At Random, March 1998, 8 pp.
  The first crucible in U.S. journalist David Halberstam's professional career came when he witnessed nonviolent desegregation demonstrations by black college students in Nashville, Tennessee, in February 1960, in the throes of the civil rights movement in the U.S. South. Four years ago, following distinguished tenures at several major newspapers and authorship of a number of books on politics and other aspects of U.S. society, Halberstam returned to that first big story. His latest book, The Children, recreates the saga of the eight young student leaders in Nashville and describes what happened to them -- and to the United States -- in the intervening four decades.
  
  
• Katzenbach, Nicholas deB.; Marshall, Burke. "Not Color Blind: Just Blind." The New York Times Magazine, February 22, 1998, pp. 42-45.
  The two authors, both high-level attorneys in the Kennedy administration, argue that the anti-affirmative action forces in the United States have been gaining more strength and are basically misguided.
  
  
• Kennedy, Randall. "My Race Problem -- And Ours." The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 279, no. 5, May 1997, pp. 55-66.
  Expressing his belief that racial pride must be linked to accomplishment and not simply to kinship, the author, a Harvard Law School professor, argues against racially stratified loyalty. This does not mean he supports a racially-blind perspective, observing that it is bad policy to blind oneself to any potentially useful knowledge. But outreach of any kind to one group or another should be based not on racial kinship but on distributive justice. Ultimately, he proposes a shoe-on-the-other-foot test for the propriety of racial sentiment. If a sentiment or practice would be judged offensive when voiced or implemented by anyone, it should be viewed as prima-facie offensive generally.
  
  
• King, Paul. "A Matter of Pride." Emerge, vol. 9, no. 1, October 1997, pp.62-65.
  Paul King, a prominent African-American businessman, argues that "To reject racial kinship is to embrace self-hate." King s argument is in response to the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly, where Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law, stated that "I eschew racial pride because of my conception of what should properly be the object of pride for an individual: something that he or she has accomplished." King believes that African Americans should be proud of their heritage and even prouder of their accomplishments, because they are almost always based on heritage. Key to his argument is the importance of racial kinship and its necessity for "Black survival." While King primarily focuses on the world of business, he believes his thesis is universally true for all African-Americans.
  
  
• Ladner, Joyce A. "A New Civil Rights Agenda." Brookings Review, vol. 18, no. 2, Spring 2000, pp. 26-28.
  The American civil rights movement made lasting contributions to the United States, says the author, but it did not bring the long-term parity that activists and policymakers hoped for. She examines the two major issues that remain on the civil rights agenda: Addressing the persistence of racial disparities, and redefining the agenda to fit America's vastly changing demographics (a result of the rapid growth of immigration since 1965). Ladner describes how a new generation of civil rights leaders is making a difference by focusing on eliminating social and economic disparities. The most effective of these leaders, she says, are operating in the nonprofit sector, primarily in community-based groups.
  
  
• Lewis, John; D'Orso, Michael. "In The Eye of History: John Lewis' Path through the Civil Rights Movement to the Halls of Congress." Emerge, vol. 9, no. 8, June 1998, pp. 56-60.
  In this excerpt from his book Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, John Lewis recounts the critical days and moments before the 1963 civil rights march in Washington, DC. An effort to test desegregation in the South turns into a brutal confrontation and sets the stage for a speech Lewis would later give at the march. But the address Lewis wanted to give and the one he actually delivered were two different things. His fellow civil rights leaders, the Kennedy administration -- even the Catholic church got involved, fearing the speech would undermine solidarity with the President's proposed civil rights bill. But as the article concludes, while Lewis' speech may still have had "more teeth than any other speech made that day," it was Martin Luther King's "I have a dream..." address that history will remember.
  
  
• Lieske, Joel. "Race and Democracy." PS: Political Science and Politics, vol. 32, no. 2, June 1999, pp. 217-225.
  Lieske discusses Tocqueville's view of American democracy as far as race is concerned. Tocqueville, in his landmark work, Democracy in America, said that the greatest threat to American democracy was the failure to assimilate people of color into the society. He thought that blacks and native Americans were oppressed, but it also is clear that the French writer also thought that whites were superior, says Lieske. The important point, Lieske concludes, is that Tocqueville could not have foreseen the enormous change in American attitudes on race, particularly by the second half of the twentieth century.
  
  
• Loury, Glenn C. "How To Mend Affirmative Action." The Public Interest, no. 127, Spring 1997, pp. 33-43.
  Boston University economist Glenn C. Loury writes that lowering standards in order to hire or admit blacks is harmful to both black and white Americans. Loury argues that family nurturing and developmental opportunities are more important in the long run than "quotas" or affirmative action policies that do everyone (employer/employee, school/student) a disservice. He concludes that "it is morally unjustified -- and to this African American, humiliating -- that preferential treatment based on race should become institutionalized for those of us who are now enjoying all the advantages of middle-class life."
  
  
• McWhorter, John H. "Explaining The Black Education Gap." Wilson Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 3, Summer 2000, pp.72-92.
  Despite the rise of the black middle class in America, African-American students still lag significantly behind their peers in academic performance. The author, an African-American professor of linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, believes that the root of this gap is not racism, inadequate school funding, or socioeconomic status, but a strain of anti-intellectualism that plagues the black American community. In this thoughtful article, McWhorter writes that in his years teaching at Berkeley, he has "spent a long time trying not to give credence to a pattern that became too consistent and obvious to ignore", that African-Americans were among his poorest students (black students from the Caribbean and African nations have been among his best). A product of centuries of slavery and segregation, he believes that anti-intellectualism among American blacks has been reinforced by the 1960s-1970s strand of separatism that rejects everything "white". He notes that it permeates black American culture, yet goes unrecognized because of the widespread victimologist mindset. He states: "it is not pleasant to think that blacks are held down by black culture itself, but it is absolutely vital that we address anti-intellectualism in black American culture honestly."
  
  
• Marable, Manning "Black Studies and the Racial Mountain." Souls, vol. 2, no. 3, Summer 2000, pp. 17-36.
  In this essay on the nature and evolution of African American studies, Columbia University scholar Manning Marable notes that the concept of African American studies lies essentially in the "black intellectual tradition, the critical thought and perspectives of intellectuals of African descent and scholars of black America and Africa and the black Diaspora." Grounded in the reality of black life and experiences, the black intellectual tradition began over 200 years ago as African Americans developed a network of "Africa Free Schools" and a number of church supported educational institutions. It has always been corrective and prescriptive, argues Marable, with a practical connection between scholarship and struggle, between social analysis and social transformation. As we advance into the 21st century, he says, Black studies is challenged "to become once again not merely another methodology for interpreting the black world but an intellectual project that seeks its transformation."
  
  
• Martinez, Ruben; et al. "Talking about Race." The New York Times Magazine, July 16, 2000, pp. 11-72.
  This is the last installment of a six-week long New York Times series entitled, How Race is Lived in America, in which private citizens from all walks of life talk about how race affects their lives -- recounting their personal experiences along side documentary pictures. One section features prominent people who are in a minority at work, another portrays enduring cross-racial relationships, and in yet another Times editors and writers reflect on what working on the series meant to them. These unique individual voices open a unique window onto the day-to-day reality of race in America.
  
  
• Milem, Jeffrey F. "Why Race Matters." Academe, vol. 86, no. 5, September/October 2000, pp. 26-29.
  Milem, an associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, argues that the current momentum against affirmative action in higher education is fueled by several basic misconceptions about racial dynamics in academia and U.S. society -- misconceptions that may give rise to misguided policies if they are not challenged. Noting that one misconception holds that increased racial diversity in higher education benefits only students of color, Milem outlines recent research that reveals the benefits diversity brings to institutions.
  
  
• Miller, D. W. "A Ghetto Childhood Inspires the Research of a Yale Sociologist." The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 45, no. 28, March 19, 1999, pp. A15-A16.
  Dalton Conley, now an assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at Yale University who spent his early years in a crime-ridden Manhattan public-housing project, is exploring some of the most vexing questions of racial and economic inequality. His mother and father, both white and from middle-class backgrounds, chose to join Manhattan's bohemian subculture in the late 1960s. Conley argues that his childhood "demonstrates the persistence of racial and class advantage." He argues that, although black incomes have risen, black people lag behind on educational attainment, job opportunities, welfare dependency, and illegitimacy because they have historically been deprived of the opportunity to accumulate wealth. In looking at statistics on household income, race, and net worth, he observes that there are astonishing differences between black and whites, even in the same income bracket.
  
  
• Prewitt, Kenneth. "Democracy, Diversity, and Democracy - The 2000 Census Story" Brookings Review, vol. 20, no. 1, Winter 2002, pp. 1-5
  The author documents the unprecedented diversity of the United States, based on the results of the 2000 Census. Foreign-born residents now comprise ten percent of the U.S. population. In 1900, nearly 9 out of 10 immigrants were European. As late as 1960, the figure was three in four. But today, more than half are from Latin America and more than a quarter from Asia.
  
  
• Race in America - Atlantic Unbound Roundtable.
  In November 1997, the Atlantic Monthly magazine posted an online roundtable discussion on race in America between Nicholas Lemann, a national correspondent for the magazine, and panel of distinguished commentators -- Dinesh D'Sousa, Christopher Edley Jr., and Glenn C. Loury. The site also includes a link to past articles on race and affirmative action from the Atlantic Monthly archives.
  
  
• Rauch, Jonathan. "Diversity in a New America." Brookings Review, vol. 20, no. 1, Winter 2002, pp. 4-5.
  Many innocent Muslims, American and foreign, died in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. More than 50 countries lost citizens. The United States is arguably the most diverse society in the world, says Rauch, and its diversity is increasing so quickly Americans can no longer be sure what is meant by diversity. Although many countries have diverse populations, Rauch emphasizes that American society is distinguished by the fact that it views its vast diversity not as a problem to be solved, but as something to be embraced for the cultural and economic benefits it brings. Note that this entire issue of the Brookings Review explores how diversity is changing the United States, and what this means for policy. In separate articles, scholars explore topics such as diversity in America, Hispanic America, Arab and Muslim America, and Religion in America.
  
  
• Riley, Jason L. "The 'Diversity' Defense." Commentary, vol. 111, no. 4, April 2001, pp. 24-27.
  Court cases and state initiatives during the 1990s led to the end of many affirmative action programs in higher education that were based on racial quotas. ��No longer do college administrators and other affirmative action advocates speak, as they once did, about the need to overcome a legacy of past discrimination or to achieve social justice,�� writes Riley. ��In seeking to justify race-based admissions programs, they now speak, rather, of a purely educational purpose: namely, ��diversity.���� Riley, a writer for the ��Wall Street Journal,�� discusses the ��diversity�� approach to affirmative action programs, noting that the ��pursuit of diversity for its own sake encourages Americans to use race as a stand-in for an individual��s experiences, ideas, and outlook, sanctioning, as the court put it, ��the mode of thought and behavior that underlies most prejudice and bigotry in modern America.����
  
  
• Rosen, Jeffrey. "Damage Control." The New Yorker (California Issue), vol. 74, no. 2, February 23 & March 2, 1998, pp. 58-68.
  California's Proposition 209, which bans all affirmative action programs based on race, is having severe consequences as minority student enrollments plummet in the state's elite schools. As a result, educators face two unpalatable choices: a resegregation of these top public universities, or a dramatic lowering of standards to reach representative numbers of minorities. "It was a form of limiting the damage," says a former opponent of affirmative action. "Now that you have to have race-neutral methods, if you still want to get African-Americans and Hispanics in, you have to redefine the central mission of the research university in a way that lowers standards for everybody. That's an unintended consequence of Proposition 209, and it's unfortunate." The author also examines Prop 209's impact on city fire and police departments.
  
  
• Samuelsen, Shelby; Michelau, Demaree. "Whatever Happened to Affirmative Action?" State Legislatures, vol. 27, no. 3, March 2001, pp. 28-31.
  In December of 2000, the federal appeals court ruled in favor of using race as a consideration for college admission, allowing schools in several states to continue affirmative action programs. But state law does not allow consideration of race in the states of California and Washington, and other states are considering moving away from affirmative action. The author discusses the future of affirmative action and the different ways states are now approaching the recruitment and retention of minority students. They note, ��The future of affirmative action is unclear, but one thing is clear. The issues of access and equality remain on the front burner of legislative agendas.
  
  Schier, Steven. "From Melting Pot To Centrifuge - Immigrants And American Politics" Brookings Review, vol. 20, no. 1, Winter 2002, pp. 16-19
  Schier notes that the foreign-born population of the United States is at a peak, but that it differs demographically and politically from that of a century ago. Today's immigrants are mostly from Latin America and Asia, and that they are not as integrated into the political system as their predecessors because of a variety of factors, including the weakening of political parties. Noting that few immigrants vote, he calls for reforms to encourage immigrants to vote once they become citizens, including national voter registration and changes to make the voting process easier.
  
  
• Schmidt, Peter. "U. of California Ends Affirmative Action Ban." The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 47, no. 37, May 25, 2001, pp. A23-24.
  With the flames of controversy blazing red-hot, Schmidt describes the recent, unanimous decision by the University of California's Board of Regents to rescind its own affirmative-action bans. Supporters of the ground-breaking decision expressed concern that the 1995 bans had caused the university to be perceived as inhospitable to minority students. Despite battles revolved around semantics, the resolution, though largely symbolic, does commit the university to try to improve retention rates of students as well as undertake new efforts to facilitate the transfer of students from the state's community colleges through a "dual admissions" policy. Despite heated debates over language, content, and meaning, " ' the message, really, is that the University of California is no longer a sponsor of anti-affirmative-action movements around the nation.'"
  
  
• Skerry, Peter. "The Strange Politics of Affirmative Action." Wilson Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 1, Winter 1997, pp. 39-46.
  The author cites sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset's point of view that in recent years, affirmative action policies have brought two core American values -- egalitarianism and individualism -- into sharp conflict. Skerry argues that the conflict can and does coexist in the same individual. This leads to the inevitable corollary question, how do members of minority groups reconcile the benefits they receive from affirmative action with their own individualist values? The answer to this and other questions on the subject has as much to do with the nature of contemporary American politics as with the state of race relations. And while some comfort can be had in this finding, it also suggests that the controversy will be all the more difficult to resolve.
  
  
• Stanfield, Rochelle L. "Blending of America." National Journal, vol. 29, no. 37, September 13, 1997, pp. 1780-1782.
  The author demonstrates that intermarriage is changing the face of America -- literally. The United States is still a melting pot and, increasingly, intermarriage means that people can no longer be identified simply as white, black, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian. While the government has paid little attention to this phenomenon to date, by 2050, 21 percent of the U.S. population will be of mixed racial or ethnic ancestry as opposed to an estimated 7 percent today, according to one study cited in the article.
  
  
• Sturm, Susan; Guinier, Lani. "The Future of Affirmative Action." Boston Review, December 2000/January 2001, 23 pp.
  Sturm and Guinier, law professors at Columbia and Harvard Universities, respectively, argue that the current systems of affirmative action are flawed not by focusing on merit, but by equating merit with test scores. Using test scores for admitting students to college or hiring people is fundamentally unfair, they say, because it "restricts opportunities for many poor and working-class Americans of all colors and genders." They cite data that demonstrates that many people with low test scores can do well in college, and contribute more to their communities after graduation than those with higher test scores. Although there is no single solution to the problem, they maintain that organizations need to give more people the opportunity to succeed in jobs through initial tryout periods, and that college admissions decisions should focus more on individual evaluations of candidates.
  
  
• Taylor, Edward. "And the Winner Is Us: How We All May Benefit from Diversity in Academe." Change, vol. 32, no.4, July/August 2000, pp. 42-45.
  More African Americans than ever are attending graduate school in the United States -- and many are planning on academic careers, thanks to a number of new programs that reduce the consequences of negative stereotyping, says Professor Taylor, of the University of Washington. He asserts that as more African Americans join university faculties, their desire to "thrive intellectually without the historical sense of occupation" will result in significant education reform. "They are shaping new strategies to resist the racial categories and testing hierarchies that have perniciously placed children of color at the bottom of every statistic available. These strategies, I believe, will benefit all children," says Taylor.
  
  
• Thernstrom, Abigail. "Diversity Yes, Preferences No." Academe, vol. 86, no. 5, September/October 2000, pp. 30-33.
  In their book, The Shape Of The River, William G. Bowen and Derek Bok found that "graduates of the twenty eight highly selective schools they studied expressed appreciation for a racially diverse environment and indeed wished their colleges had emphasized racial diversity even more." However, Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, notes that a recent survey found that while 84 percent of college students think that ethnic diversity on campus is important, 77 percent are opposed to giving preferences to minority students in the admissions process. She refutes a number of Bowen and Bok's findings in support of racial preferences, noting, "If America's obsession with race is slowly fading, perhaps the importance of a 'diversity' that is more expansively defined will become evident."
  
  
• Thernstrom, Stephan and Abigail. "Racial Preferences: What We Now Know." Commentary, vol. 107, Feb 1999, no. 2, pp. 44-50.
  For the last three decades, leading American colleges and universities have employed racial and ethnic preferences in order to admit black students, as a means of redressing historic inequities. In recent years, however, increasing objections have been raised to policies giving preference to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, culminating in a series of court decisions and state laws forbidding them. The authors reveal that, contrary to proponents' claims that ethnic background was only one of a number of factors determining college admission, universities in fact gave it significant weight in the selection process. Advocates for racial preferences have defended these policies as strengthening the black middle class, notably in the form of a recent book by Derek Bok and William Bowen, the former presidents of Harvard and Princeton universities respectively. In this provocative article, Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom criticize Bok's and Bowen's findings as self-serving, and glossing over or ignoring a number of important factors, such as the black dropout rate; the "stigmatization" effect; and the important role of historically-black colleges in building the black professional class. Ultimately, the authors believe that the flap over preferences diverts attention from the real problem: the tremendous racial gap in educational performance at the elementary- and secondary-school levels.
  
  
• Tienda, Marta; Simonelli, Susan. "Hispanic Students Are Missing from Diversity Debates." The Chronicle Review, vol. XLVII, no. 38, June 1, 2001, pp. B13-B14
  Although U.S. census figures show that the Hispanic population is now about the same size as the black population, only 8 percent of Hispanics attend college --compared to 11 percent of blacks and 70 percent of whites. In addition, more than half of Hispanic college students were enrolled in two-year institutions in 1996, in contrast to 37 percent of white students. The cost of this educational underachievement will be enormous, say the authors, unless steps are taken to reverse current circumstances. Asserting that the elimination of affirmative action programs will have a negative impact on Hispanic students, they maintain it is urgent that administrators develop multiple strategies to reverse the trend towards Hispanic inequality in education.
  
  
• Tomasson, Richard F. "Reaching the Top." Society, vol. 37, no.5, July/August 2000, pp. 9-12.
  Tomasson, a professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico, finds fault with the 1999 report of the College Board's National Task Force on Minority Higher Achievement, Reaching the Top. He argues that most people are sympathetic to the general aim of the task force, which was formed to counter the pullback from affirmative action that began in 1996. However, he believes that the ethnic categories used in the report are "incongruous, even stereotypical," and that its proposals to help African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans to reach "overall educational parity" with whites or Asians are misguided -- as it is naive to strive for parity. Tomasson writes that the report is rooted in the common, but erroneous, faith that the schools are the answer to achieving ethnic and racial equality. Schools are important, he says, but not nearly as decisive as the sub-cultures of the "disadvantaged" minorities and the poor.
  
  
• Traub, James. "The Class of Prop. 209." The New York Times Magazine, May 2, 1999, pp. 44-51, 76-79.
  In the wake of the California ban on affirmative action, Traub examines the existing opportunities for minority students to obtain higher education in that state. He analyzes the impact of the ban on the numbers of black and Hispanic students registered, and explores the many different theories and approaches to admissions policies as well as the experiments to keep minorities represented. One of the surprising conclusions of his research is that "ending affirmative action has had one publicized and profoundly desirable consequence: it has forced the university to try to expand the pool of eligible minority students." He discusses the proliferation of outreach programs conducted by the university system to upgrade the quality of high-school education. Traub takes as a case study U.C. Riverside and its special relationship with Indio High School, which mainly serves the Chicano population.
  
  
• Twohey, Megan. "Desegregation Is Dead: Bye-Bye, Busing." National Journal, vol. 31, no. 38, September 18, 1999, pp. 2614-262O.
  Twohey discusses the implication of the virtual end of court-ordered busing to achieve racial integration in the nation's public schools. Although the result, she says, is that "schools are once again becoming racially divided," the question is whether this is good or bad? She quotes noted African American leader W.E.B. Du Bois, one of many, who argued that it is quality schools that matter, not mixed schools. But others say that integrated education is about much more than good test scores and learning to read. It is about quality citizenship and understanding people of other races.
  
  
• Viadero, Debra. "At the Crossroads." Education Week, vol. 18, no. 28, March 24, 1999, pp. 38-45.
  When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling that declared segregated public schools unconstitutional, Prince Edward County in the state of Virginia shut down its schools for five years and began a system of private education for white students rather than mix races. Today, its public schools are among the most integrated in the nation. The author recounts Prince Edward County's desegregation battle and its impact on the lives of those in the community, black and white. The article is part of the Education Week series "Lessons of the Century -- the Struggle for Integration."
  
  
• Wagner, David; et al. "The Rise -- And Fall? -- of Affirmative Action: Special Report." The World & I, vol. 13, no. 6, June 1998, pp. 22-39.
  In the wake of the Supreme Court's upholding of California's ban on race-based preferences in the public sphere, this series of four articles examines whether the United States is on the brink of ending affirmative action. Journalist David Wagner notes that whether or not affirmative action is the cause, the nation's workplace has changed significantly since its inception. One example: Blacks have tripled their share of management, technical and clerical jobs. Hilary O. Shelton, of the NAACP, argues that affirmative action is needed because discrimination still exists and because affirmative action ensures competent, educated leaders "from and for" all communities in America. Roger Clegg, of the Center for Equal Opportunity, agrees that discrimination exists but says the solution lies in enforcing the laws we have and improving education and job training. The Special Report concludes with a forum featuring NAACP chairman Julian Bond; Baltimore, MD Mayor Kurt Schmoke; Glenn Loury, of Boston University; Ward Connerly, of the American Civil Rights Institute, and broadcaster Armstrong Williams.
  
  
• Wellner, Alison Stein. "Diversity, Inc." American Demographics, vol. 23, no. 10, October 2001, pp. 22-23.
  According to the U.S. Census Bureau��s Survey of Minority Owned Business Enterprises report, released in July 2001, the number of minority owned firms grew four times faster than all U.S. firms during the 1990s, to more than 3 million companies. The author looks at some of the reasons for this remarkable growth, among them: a rise in immigrant entrepreneurs, unprecedented access to capital by minorities and improved levels of educational attainment.
  
  
• Wilson, William. "Affirming Opportunity." The American Prospect, No. 46, September-October 1999, pp. 61-64.
  The author strongly endorses race-based affirmative action. He says "a race-neutral agenda would be a mistake." However, he believes that the policy needs to be redesigned to earn broader support. For example, instead of numerical guidelines and quotas, a new set of more flexible evaluation criteria needs to be developed that stresses merit -- ability to overcome hardship, self-awareness, specialized knowledge, and leadership ability. Wilson calls his approach Affirmative Opportunity.
  
  
• Worth, Robert. "Beyond Racial Preferences." The Washington Monthly, vol. 30, no. 3, March 1998, pp. 28-33.
  The author quotes General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his 1994 autobiography: "I benefitted from equal opportunity ... but I was not shown preference. The Army, as a matter of fairness, made sure that performance would be the only measure of advancement." How to provide equal opportunity for those with unequal preparation is one of the challenges inherent in the discussion about affirmative action, says Worth. He points to a number of programs, including the Army's U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School, as the kind of solution that can work, and allow advancement on the basis of merit. He calls for more use of such programs, citing the Head Start program as one of the most successful.

Citations

• Aleinikoff, T. Alexander. "A Multicultural Nationalism?" The American Prospect, January-February 1998, pp. 80-86.
  
  
• Besharov, Douglas J. and Sullivan, Timothy S. "One Flesh: America Is Experiencing an Unprecedented Increase in Black-White Intermarriage." The New Democrat, July-August 1996, p. 19 ff.
  
  
• Brenner, Reuven. "Land of Opportunity." Forbes, October 12, 1998, pp. 66-74.
  
  
• Briggs, Xavier de Souza, ed. "Racially and Ethnically Diverse Urban Neighborhoods." Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, vol. 4, no. 2, 1998, pp. 1-269.
  This issue is entirely devoted to the study of 14 stable, racially and ethnically diverse urban communities in the United States.
  
  
• Brooks, David. "One Nation, Slightly Divisible." The Atlantic Monthly, December 2001, pp. 53-65.
  
  
• Diversity in a New America." Brookings Review, Winter 2002. Series of articles on diversity including discussion on the 2000 census; Hispanics; Arab and Muslims; immigration; affirmative action, ethnic lobbies.
  
  
• Fears, Darryl and Claudia Deane. "Biracial Couples Report Tolerance." The Washington Post, July 5, 2001, pp. A1, A4.
  
  
• Frey, William H. "The New Demographic Divide in the U.S.: Immigrant and Domestic 'Migrant Magnets.'" The Public Perspective, June 1998, pp. 25-40.
  
  
• Frey, William H. and Farley, Reynolds. "Latino, Asian and Black Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Are Multi-ethnic Metros Different?" Demography, February 1996, pp. 35-50.
  
  
• Funderburg, Lise. "Crossing the Demographic Divide: the Otherness of Multiracial Identity." American Demographics, October 1998, pp. 24-25.
  
  
• Kirschten, Dick. "America's Demographic Divide." National Journal, January 16, 1999, pp. 104-106.
  
  
• Lind, Michael. "The Beige and the Black." The New York Times Magazine, August 16, 1998, p. 38-39.
  
  
• Miller, D.W. "Scholars of Immigration Focus on the Children." The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 5, 1999, pp. A19 ff.
  
  
• Robinson, Linda. "Hispanics Don't Exist." U.S. News and World Report, May 11, 1998, pp. 26-32.
  This article provides a guide to the nation's 17 major Latino subcultures.
  
  
• Schnaiberg, Lynn. "Immigrants: Providing a Lesson in How to Adapt." Education Week on the Web, vol. 18, no. 20, 7 pp.
  
  
• Suro, Roberto. "Mixed Doubles." American Demographics, November 1999, pp. 56-62.
  
  
• Suro, Roberto. "Recasting the Melting Pot." American Demographics, March 1999, pp. 30-32.
  
  
• Tilove, Jonathan. "The New Map of American Politics." The American Prospect, May-June 1999, 12 pp.