We Wont Go Back CL

The authors, law professors at Georgetown University, are unequivocal advocates of affirmative action, and their book is at once impressive and frustrating. They convincingly argue that affirmative action has been the result of demands for inclusion in a society hierarchized by race and sex, rather than one with color-blind ideals. They acknowledge that merit can be measured in divergent and imprecise ways and note that we tolerate special consideration for some, such as college admissions preference for alumni children. Yet the authors contend that none of the current criticisms of affirmative action add anything to the 20-year-old debate on the subject, thus ignoring some of the more subtle arguments presented in recent books like Richard Kahlenberg's The Remedy or Christopher Edley's Not all Black and White. Their wholesale endorsement of class-based affirmative action in addition to race- and gender-based preferential treatment fails to confront the contradictions and complexities of that alternative. The book includes portraits of individuals helped by affirmative action, which might have been augmented with contrasting examples of people for whom the policy has worked less well. The authors predict that expanded affirmative action would lead to greater community control, where, for example, universities would commit themselves to early childhood education and other measures to serve the least advantaged. (Mar.)