Racism
...Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Does Skrentny demonstrate that the affirmative action "debate" has more than just two competing arguments stemming from the Right and the Left? If so, what are these alternative arguments?
Nathan Glazer (21) was on Skrentny's committee
do you think this significantly altered the analyses presented in this book?
Martin Luther King's (30-31) and Lipset's beliefs of colorblindness
Chapter 1: The Ironies of Affirmative Action (1)
Affirmative action has followed other "righteous" battles in American politics, such as the abortion debate (1)
Ironies of Affirmative Action (2)
Exceptions to difference blindness, exceptions to merit, prevail in almost all walks of American life
"Not only do whites tend to dislike affirmative action, but it appears that the policy tends to make whites think less of African-Americans as a group" (5).
"
affirmative action became a political possibility without the benefit of any organized lobbying for the policy" (5).
o it had almost no organized support or opposition (6)
What Is Affirmative Action (6)
the term "affirmative action" first appeared as a part of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act
model of civil rights before affirmative action model: "color-blind" model
o generally difference blindness or abstract individualism or classical liberalism
affirmative action came to mean something very different from the color-blind approach:
o race conscious
Skrentny recognizes affirmative action as a model more or less advocated in public or official statements or institutionalized in particular practices or laws, on the basis of the extent to which the following unit ideas are present:
o A requirement that employers see in their everyday hiring and promoting practices group difference and specifically race as real (rather than unreal or irrelevant)
o...
View Full Essay
