A "Desperate Defense" for Affirmative Action Gets Demolished

George Leef

In this essay on Minding the Campus, Russ Nieli responds to a recent article in the American Scholar by William Chace. Nieli calls Chace's piece a "desperate defense" of affirmative action and proceeds to show that Chace is really given no defense at all beyond repetition of jaded slogans. More importantly, Chace, like all the rest of the affirmative action defense corps, ignores the obvious point that a policy of racial preferences is a zero-sum game. It merely shuffles some students around to schools they would not have otherwise gotten into while simultaneously shuffling others out of schools they would have qualified for. There is no reason to believe that this game leads to any educational improvements, but it probably does lead to some degree of the very thing the affirmative action enthusiasts say they want to exterminate, namely racial animosity.

  • Share

Most Commented

October 29, 2024

1.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

November 19, 2024

2.

Lee Zeldin Should Reform EPA Science Policy

NAS welcomes the nomination of Congressmen Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency....

November 20, 2024

3.

NAS Welcomes Administrator McMahon's Nomination to Serve as Education Secretary

With McMahon, the new administration has a chance to drastically slim down and depoliticize the Education Department....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....