Race, Class, and Affirmative Action

Race, Class, and Affirmative Action PDF Author: Sigal Alon
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610448545
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
No issue in American higher education is more contentious than that of race-based affirmative action. In light of the ongoing debate around the topic and recent Supreme Court rulings, affirmative action policy may be facing further changes. As an alternative to race-based affirmative action, some analysts suggest affirmative action policies based on class. In Race, Class, and Affirmative Action, sociologist Sigal Alon studies the race-based affirmative action policies in the United States. and the class-based affirmative action policies in Israel. Alon evaluates how these different policies foster campus diversity and socioeconomic mobility by comparing the Israeli policy with a simulated model of race-based affirmative action and the U.S. policy with a simulated model of class-based affirmative action. Alon finds that affirmative action at elite institutions in both countries is a key vehicle of mobility for disenfranchised students, whether they are racial and ethnic minorities or socioeconomically disadvantaged. Affirmative action improves their academic success and graduation rates and leads to better labor market outcomes. The beneficiaries of affirmative action in both countries thrive at elite colleges and in selective fields of study. As Alon demonstrates, they would not be better off attending less selective colleges instead. Alon finds that Israel’s class-based affirmative action programs have provided much-needed entry slots at the elite universities to students from the geographic periphery, from high-poverty high schools, and from poor families. However, this approach has not generated as much ethnic diversity as a race-based policy would. By contrast, affirmative action policies in the United States have fostered racial and ethnic diversity at a level that cannot be matched with class-based policies. Yet, class-based policies would do a better job at boosting the socioeconomic diversity at these bastions of privilege. The findings from both countries suggest that neither race-based nor class-based models by themselves can generate broad diversity. According to Alon, the best route for promoting both racial and socioeconomic diversity is to embed the consideration of race within class-based affirmative action. Such a hybrid model would maximize the mobility benefits for both socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority students. Race, Class, and Affirmative Action moves past political talking points to offer an innovative, evidence-based perspective on the merits and feasibility of different designs of affirmative action.

Race, Class, and Affirmative Action

Race, Class, and Affirmative Action PDF Author: Sigal Alon
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610448545
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Get Book

Book Description
No issue in American higher education is more contentious than that of race-based affirmative action. In light of the ongoing debate around the topic and recent Supreme Court rulings, affirmative action policy may be facing further changes. As an alternative to race-based affirmative action, some analysts suggest affirmative action policies based on class. In Race, Class, and Affirmative Action, sociologist Sigal Alon studies the race-based affirmative action policies in the United States. and the class-based affirmative action policies in Israel. Alon evaluates how these different policies foster campus diversity and socioeconomic mobility by comparing the Israeli policy with a simulated model of race-based affirmative action and the U.S. policy with a simulated model of class-based affirmative action. Alon finds that affirmative action at elite institutions in both countries is a key vehicle of mobility for disenfranchised students, whether they are racial and ethnic minorities or socioeconomically disadvantaged. Affirmative action improves their academic success and graduation rates and leads to better labor market outcomes. The beneficiaries of affirmative action in both countries thrive at elite colleges and in selective fields of study. As Alon demonstrates, they would not be better off attending less selective colleges instead. Alon finds that Israel’s class-based affirmative action programs have provided much-needed entry slots at the elite universities to students from the geographic periphery, from high-poverty high schools, and from poor families. However, this approach has not generated as much ethnic diversity as a race-based policy would. By contrast, affirmative action policies in the United States have fostered racial and ethnic diversity at a level that cannot be matched with class-based policies. Yet, class-based policies would do a better job at boosting the socioeconomic diversity at these bastions of privilege. The findings from both countries suggest that neither race-based nor class-based models by themselves can generate broad diversity. According to Alon, the best route for promoting both racial and socioeconomic diversity is to embed the consideration of race within class-based affirmative action. Such a hybrid model would maximize the mobility benefits for both socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority students. Race, Class, and Affirmative Action moves past political talking points to offer an innovative, evidence-based perspective on the merits and feasibility of different designs of affirmative action.

Place, Not Race

Place, Not Race PDF Author: Sheryll Cashin
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807086150
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
From a nationally recognized expert, a fresh and original argument for bettering affirmative action Race-based affirmative action had been declining as a factor in university admissions even before the recent spate of related cases arrived at the Supreme Court. Since Ward Connerly kickstarted a state-by-state political mobilization against affirmative action in the mid-1990s, the percentage of four-year public colleges that consider racial or ethnic status in admissions has fallen from 60 percent to 35 percent. Only 45 percent of private colleges still explicitly consider race, with elite schools more likely to do so, although they too have retreated. For law professor and civil rights activist Sheryll Cashin, this isn’t entirely bad news, because as she argues, affirmative action as currently practiced does little to help disadvantaged people. The truly disadvantaged—black and brown children trapped in high-poverty environs—are not getting the quality schooling they need in part because backlash and wedge politics undermine any possibility for common-sense public policies. Using place instead of race in diversity programming, she writes, will better amend the structural disadvantages endured by many children of color, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. In Place, Not Race, Cashin reimagines affirmative action and champions place-based policies, arguing that college applicants who have thrived despite exposure to neighborhood or school poverty are deserving of special consideration. Those blessed to have come of age in poverty-free havens are not. Sixty years since the historic decision, we’re undoubtedly far from meeting the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, but Cashin offers a new framework for true inclusion for the millions of children who live separate and unequal lives. Her proposals include making standardized tests optional, replacing merit-based financial aid with need-based financial aid, and recruiting high-achieving students from overlooked places, among other steps that encourage cross-racial alliances and social mobility. A call for action toward the long overdue promise of equality, Place, Not Race persuasively shows how the social costs of racial preferences actually outweigh any of the marginal benefits when effective race-neutral alternatives are available.

The Future of Affirmative Action

The Future of Affirmative Action PDF Author: Richard D. Kahlenberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780870785412
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
As the United States experiences dramatic demographic change--and as our society's income inequality continues to rise--promoting racial, ethnic, and economic inclusion at selective colleges has become more important than ever. At the same time, however, many Americans--including several members of the U.S. Supreme Court--are uneasy with explicitly using race as a factor in college admissions. The Court's decision in Fisher v. University of Texas emphasized that universities can use race in admissions only when "necessary," and that universities bear "the ultimate burden of demonstrating, before turning to racial classifications, that available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice." With race-based admission programs increasingly curtailed, The Future of Affirmative Action explores race-neutral approaches as a method of promoting college diversity after Fisher decision. The volume suggests that Fisher might on the one hand be a further challenge to the use of racial criteria in admissions, but on the other presents a new opportunity to tackle, at long last, the burgeoning economic divisions in our system of higher education, and in society as a whole. Contributions from: Danielle Allen (Princeton); John Brittain (University of the District of Columbia) and Benjamin Landy (MSNBC.com); Nancy Cantor and Peter Englot (Rutgers-Newark); Anthony P. Carnevale, Stephen J. Rose, and Jeff Strohl (Georgetown University); Dalton Conley (New York University); Arthur L. Coleman and Teresa E. Taylor (EducationCounsel LLC); Matthew N. Gaertner (Pearson); Sara Goldrick-Rab (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Scott Greytak (Campinha Bacote LLC); Catharine Hill (Vassar); Richard D. Kahlenberg (The Century Foundation); Richard L. McCormick (Rutgers); Nancy G. McDuff (University of Georgia); Halley Potter (The Century Foundation); Alexandria Walton Radford (RTI International) and Jessica Howell (College Board); Richard Sander (UCLA School of Law); and Marta Tienda (Princeton).

The Remedy

The Remedy PDF Author: Richard D. Kahlenberg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
In a sweeping and damning analysis, Kahlenberg examines how the rationale for affirmative action has moved inexorably away from its original commitment to remedy past discrimination and instead has become a means to achieve racial diversity, even if that means giving preference to upper-middle-class blacks over poor whites. Such perverse outcomes, he shows, have undermined the moral legitimacy of affirmative action, which is supposed to benefit the truly disadvantaged, not the well-to-do. If Bill Cosby's kids are given preferences in college admissions and employment opportunities while a coal miner's kids are shut out, then something has gone very wrong. But Kahlenberg goes beyond simple criticism to outline how a class-based system of affirmative action would work, and why the objections often raised turn out to be red herrings. Moreover, he pays particular attention to the impact of such a policy on the African-American community, showing that because blacks are disproportionately poor, they would still continue to reap a disproportionate share of the benefits, but without engendering resentment or feelings of injustice within the white community. The problem of race is not going to disappear anytime soon, but The Remedy provides a way to cut the Gordian knot over affirmative action without sacrificing or compromising American ideals.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action PDF Author: Tim J. Wise
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415950481
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action PDF Author: Kathiann M. Kowalski
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
ISBN: 9780761423003
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
"Outlines the arguments of those both for and against affirmative action programs and the history behind such programs"--Provided by publisher.

Race Versus Class

Race Versus Class PDF Author: Carol Miller Swain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Affirmative action programs
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Race versus Class traces the evolution of affirmative action policies and explores the issues surrounding the current debate. In addition to providing fundamental facts, the book presents original insights and recommendations for salvaging the policy. Included among the essays are case studies of race-exclusive scholarships, housing policies, and the Head Start program. The book also includes a discussion of the difficulty of measuring public opinion on affirmative action, and of how existing methods might be improved. Sound public policy recommendations emerge from the book's racially diverse group of contributors. Contents: Affirmative Action Revisisted, Carol M. Swain; Racial Classifications, April Chou; Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action: Paradox or Paradigm?, Frederick Vars; Affirmative Action and Public Opinion Polls, Ricshawn Adkins; Philosophical Perspectives, Justin McCrary; Race-Exclusive Scholarships for Undergraduate Education, Jessica Malman; Fresh Start: Redefining Affirmative Action to Include Socioeconomic Class, Jonathon Goldman; Residential Segregation, Racial Discrimination, and the Road to Reform, Cindy Kam; The Head Start Program: Constructive Affirmative Action, Priya Rajan; Index.

Race and Representation

Race and Representation PDF Author: Robert Post
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Affirmative action programs
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description


Place, Not Race

Place, Not Race PDF Author: Sheryll Cashin
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807080403
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
From a nationally recognized expert, a fresh and original argument for bettering affirmative action Race-based affirmative action had been declining as a factor in university admissions even before the recent spate of related cases arrived at the Supreme Court. Since Ward Connerly kickstarted a state-by-state political mobilization against affirmative action in the mid-1990s, the percentage of four-year public colleges that consider racial or ethnic status in admissions has fallen from 60 percent to 35 percent. Only 45 percent of private colleges still explicitly consider race, with elite schools more likely to do so, although they too have retreated. For law professor and civil rights activist Sheryll Cashin, this isn’t entirely bad news, because as she argues, affirmative action as currently practiced does little to help disadvantaged people. The truly disadvantaged—black and brown children trapped in high-poverty environs—are not getting the quality schooling they need in part because backlash and wedge politics undermine any possibility for common-sense public policies. Using place instead of race in diversity programming, she writes, will better amend the structural disadvantages endured by many children of color, while enhancing the possibility that we might one day move past the racial resentment that affirmative action engenders. In Place, Not Race, Cashin reimagines affirmative action and champions place-based policies, arguing that college applicants who have thrived despite exposure to neighborhood or school poverty are deserving of special consideration. Those blessed to have come of age in poverty-free havens are not. Sixty years since the historic decision, we’re undoubtedly far from meeting the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, but Cashin offers a new framework for true inclusion for the millions of children who live separate and unequal lives. Her proposals include making standardized tests optional, replacing merit-based financial aid with need-based financial aid, and recruiting high-achieving students from overlooked places, among other steps that encourage cross-racial alliances and social mobility. A call for action toward the long overdue promise of equality, Place, Not Race persuasively shows how the social costs of racial preferences actually outweigh any of the marginal benefits when effective race-neutral alternatives are available.

Race, Class and Conservatism

Race, Class and Conservatism PDF Author: Thomas D Boston
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136030727
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
First Published in 1988. The author's arguments are a response to five recent and controversial books: Thomas Sowell's Markets and Minorities and Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?, Walter Williams's State Against Blacks, George Gilder's Wealth and Poverty, and William J. Wilson's Declining Significance of Race. These authors insist that racial discrimination can no longer explain the disadvantaged position of blacks in American society; indeed, while sociologists argue that class has become more important than race, conservative economists insist that disparities in earnings are a fair reflection of racial differences in education, skills, and similar measures of productivity. Free markets, they contend, are anathemas to racial discrimination. Dr Boston demonstrates that these views lack empirical support and explains how discrimination persists in labor markets. While acknowledging that class position is increasingly important he nevertheless illustrates how black class stratification itself uniquely reflects racial subjugation. But in the author's own words, 'These findings will not be received comfortably by conservatives because they are just another chapter in the continuing saga of why their revolution has failed so miserably. Flawed theory creates failed policies'. Yet his book is of major importance in understanding the current position of black people in society and the reality that has to be addressed in contemporary public policy. More than this he provides a solution to the riddle of race and class which has eluded social investigators for decades.