This article features Moises Salinas, an assistant professor at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) who addresses the place of stereotypes in education, and describes how Salinas investigates root causes of stereotyping and its consequences in minority education. According to him, affirmative action policies of past decades have attempted…

Programs that serve underrepresented minority students have long faced many challenges. Prior to the late 1970s, higher education institutions reserved academic program slots for underrepresented minority students because these students had limited access to opportunities that afforded them credentials that their white counterparts could more…

This article concerns the tragedy of the misuse of power and the power of imagined inferiority. African Americans must lose misconceptions about the majority, heighten understanding about being Black in America and how that makes their children vulnerable to this nation's worst, stop fighting losing battles like affirmative action, and find and…

Preparation for and admission to law school is challenging for many students. For a number of years law schools have used criteria for admission that included school rankings and testing. Schools have been ranked by "The U. S. News and World Report" magazine and potential students have been tested with the Law School Admission Test…

This update reviews affirmative action cases in higher education in the context of the Supreme Court's recent decision to hear the Michigan affirmative action cases. The Supreme Court's decision on the Michigan cases will be the first Supreme Court opinion on affirmative action in higher education since "Bakke." Individual federal circuits and…

Explores the implications of the recent Supreme Court decision concerning race-conscious college admissions policies, including the continuing debate, college's admissions reactions, implications for race-exclusive scholarships, and student activism. Includes the complete text of the court's rulings. (EV)

Presents the story of Linda Chavez, a controversial conservative Hispanic, widely disliked because of her opposition to affirmative action assimilation advocacy, criticism to Puerto Ricans, affiliation to the Conservative Republican, and support of English as the official language of the United States. Mentions her book, "Out of the Barrio," which…

Addresses the role of affirmative action in promoting educational equity and access, presenting affirmative action case law and offering legal grounds for continued promotion of educational opportunity and diversity. The article discusses strict scrutiny, compelling state interest, and merit, explaining how and when race should be used in…

Reviews hidden assumptions within the concept of reverse discrimination (e.g., racial and gender discrimination is a thing of the past), reviewing what is known about how affirmative action affects Whites. To the extent that affirmative action negatively impacts Whites, the article suggests substituting the more neutral term of "reduced…

Presents a historical perspective of affirmative action, examining the case for and the case against affirmative action and offering guidelines for advancing toward the goals of equal opportunity and a community that engages all of its citizens. This information is presented within the context of diversity, with a focus on diversity management.…

Discusses how students and administrators at Virginia Tech are angry that the governing board eliminated affirmative action and made other important decisions without consultation. (EV)

Reviews major court decisions that have challenged the context for diversity and affirmative action initiatives in higher education, focusing on the notion of individual merit, historical court decisions, and higher education as contested terrain. Asserts that discussions of affirmative action are uncomfortable because they identify the…

Discusses three broad theoretical varieties of racial inequality (the deficiency theory, bias theory, and structural discrimination theory), suggesting that three basic strategies exist to remedy racial inequality: the civil rights strategy (prohibiting discrimination and enforcing laws), the poverty approach (helping the poor out of poverty), and…

Describes how members of minority groups view the affirmative action cases at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on the basis of the difficulty they have had in gaining access to higher education. (EV)

Excerpts from Supreme Court opinions on legal standards for federal affirmative action programs include those from the majority opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a concurring opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, and a dissenting opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens. (MSE)