Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

by Randall Kennedy

  15. See Deborah Malamud, “Affirmative Action, Diversity, and the Black Middle Class,” University of Colorado Law Review 68 (1997): 939.

  16. See, e.g., Neville Alexander, “The Struggle for National Liberation and the Attainment of Human Rights in South Africa,” in David L. Featherman, Martin Hall, and Marvin Krislov, eds., The Next Twenty-five Years: Affirmative Action in Higher Education in the United States and South Africa (2010) (“the real beneficiaries of the [affirmative action] deal have been the bourgeoisie and the rising black and established white middle and professional classes”; Pradipta Chaudhury, “The ‘Creamy Layer’: Political Economy of Reservations,” Economic and Political Weekly, May 15, 2004.

  17. See, e.g., Clarence Thomas in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 354, n. 3 (2003); Dinesh D’Souza, Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (1991), 251–53.

  18. See, e.g., United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO v. Weber, 443 U.S. 193 (1979); Petit v. City of Chicago, 352 F.3d 1111 (7th Cir. 2003); Wittmer v. Peters, 87 F.3d 916 (7th Cir. 1996); University Community College System of Nevada v. Farmer, 930 P.2d 730 (Nev. 197); Maryland Troopers Ass’n., Inc. v. Evans, 993 F.2d 1072 (4th Cir. 1993); Middleton v. City of Flint, 92 F.3d 396 (6th Cir. 1996). See also Jonathan Leonard, “The Impact of Affirmative Action in Employment,” Journal of Labor Economics 2 (1984): 439.

  19. Anne Hudson-Price, final paper for “Race Relations Law: 1877–Present,” February 6, 2013. Unpublished. On file at the Harvard Law School library.

  20. Thomas M. Shapiro and Melvin L. Oliver, Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality (1995).

  21. Deborah C. Malamud, “Affirmative Action, Diversity, and the Black Middle Class,” University of Colorado Law Review 68 (1997): 939.

  22. Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr., Mismatch (2012), 255.

  23. William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (2009), 141.

  24. William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (1987).

  25. Ibid., 163.

  26. See, e.g., Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy (2000).

  27. Brief for Amici Curiae 65, Leading American Businesses in Support of Respondents, Grutter v. Bollinger, Gerhard Casper and Kathleen M. Sullivan, eds., Supreme Court of the United States (2003) in Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States: Constitutional Law, vol. 321 (2004), 921, 935.

  28. Brief of Amici Curiae Lt. General Julius W. Becton, Jr., et al., Ibid, 86, 99.

  29. Brief of Dean Robert Post and Dean Martha Minow as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, Supreme Court of the United States (2012).

  30. Samuel Issacharoff, “Bakke in the Admissions Office and the Courts: Can Affirmative Action Be Defended?” Ohio State Law Journal 59 (1998): 669, 677 (“One of the clear legacies of Bakke has been to enshrine the term ‘diversity’ within the legal lexicon”); Malamud, “Affirmative Action, Diversity, and the Black Middle Class,” 943 (“Proponents of affirmative action have every incentive to rely solely upon justifications that they know will pass judicial muster. Thus, the Court has the unique power to control not only what institutions do on the affirmative action front, but also what they say—and thus the Court directly affects the arguments the public will hear from government officials.”)

  31. See Peter Wood, Diversity: The Invention of a Concept (2003) 135 (“diversity offers a language for promoting racial togetherness that, on its face, is grievance-free”).

  32. Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioner, Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. (2003).

  33. See “Bush and Affirmative Action; Bush’s Remarks on Michigan Admissions Policies,” New York Times, January 16, 2003.

  34. Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 354 n.3 (2003) (Thomas, J., dissenting).

  35. Shelby Steele, e-mail message to author.

  36. Wood, Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, 1.

  37. Walter Benn Michaels, The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality (2006) 16.

  38. Ibid., 12.

  39. Kingsley Brown, “Affirmative Action: Policy-Making by Deception,” Ohio Northern University Law Review 22 (1995): 1291 (“affirmative action has been characterized by deception and denial”).

  40. Graglia, “Affirmative Action: Today and Tomorrow,” 1535, 1539.

  41. Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professor Alexander et al. in Support of Petitioner, Grutter v. Bollinger, Supreme Court of the United States (2003).

  42. See Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 347 (2003) (Scalia, J., dissenting) and 383 (Rehnquist, C.J., dissenting).

  43. See, e.g., Brief of Amici Curiae California Association of Scholars, et al., Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 644 F.3d 301 (2011), 13–18.

  44. Sanford Levinson, Wrestling with Diversity (2003), 56.

  45. Samuel Issacharoff, “Law and Misdirection in the Debate Over Affirmative Action,” University of Chicago Law Forum 2002 (2002): 11, 18. See also John H. McWhorter, “The Campus Diversity Fraud,” City Journal (2002) (“Mormons, paraplegics, people from Alaska, lesbians, Ayn Randians, and poor whites exert little pull on the heartstrings of admissions committees so committed to making campuses ‘look like America.’ The diversity that counts is brown-skinned minorities, particularly African Americans”).

  46. See Rubenfeld, “Affirmative Action,” 427, 471.

  47. Guido Calabresi, “Bakke as Pseudo-Tragedy,” Catholic University Law Review (1978): 427, 429.

  48. See Michael J. Klarman, “Brown, Originalism, and Constitutional Theory: A Reply to Professor McConnell,” Virginia Law Review 81 (1995): 1881.

  49. See Christopher W. Schmidt, “The Sit-Ins and the State Action Doctrine,” William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 18 (2010): 767, 810-811.

  50. Calabresi, “Bakke as Pseudo-Tragedy,” 431.

  51. See Anderson, The Imperative of Integration.

  52. Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 334 (2003).

  53. Anderson, The Imperative of Integration, 148.

  54. See Michael J. Yelnosky, “The Prevention Justification for Affirmative Action,” Ohio State Law Journal 64 (2003): 1385. See also Christopher Edley, Jr., Not All Black and White (1996), 113–14; Michael Selmi, “Testing for Equality: Merit, Efficiency and the Affirmative Action Debate,” UCLA Law Review 42 (1995): 1251, 1277–1314.

  55. Clinton, Address on Affirmative Action, July 19, 1995.

  56. Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 345 (2003) (Ginsburg, J., concurring).

  57. See Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza, The Scar of Race (1993).

  58. See Thomas Ross, “Innocence and Affirmative Action,” Vanderbilt Law Review 43 (1990): 297.

  59. Cf. Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, “Getting to Reparations: Japanese Americans and African Americans,” Social Forces 83 (2004): 823; Eric K. Yamamoto, “Racial Reparations: Japanese American Redress and African American Claims,” Boston College Third World Law Journal 19 (1998): 477. See also Eric K. Yamamoto, Margeret Chon, Carol L. Izumi, and Frank H. Wu, Race, Rights, and Reparation: Law of the Japanese American Internment (2001).

  60. See John Hart Ely, “The Constitutionality of Reverse Racial Discrimination,” University of Chicago Law Review 41 (1974): 723.

  61. Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (1977).

  62. For an illuminating discussion of “merit” see Richard Fallon, Jr., “To Each According to His Ability, from None According to His Race: The Concept of Merit in the Law of Antidiscrimination,” Boston University Law Review 60 (1980): 815.

  63. Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? (2009), 178.

  64. Quoted in ibid.

  65. Sandel, Justice, 178.

  66. Goodwin Liu, “The Causation Fallacy: Bakke and the Basic Arithmetic of Selective Admissions,” Michigan Law Review 100 (2001): 1045.
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  67. Ibid., 1049.

  68. Barbara Bergman, In Defense of Affirmative Action (1997), 132.

  69. See, generally, Andrew F. Halaby and Stephen R. McAllister, “An Analysis of the Supreme Court’s Reliance on Racial ‘Stigma’ as a Constitutional Concept in Affirmative Action Cases,” Michigan Journal of Race & Law 2 (1997): 235; Ashley Hibbett, “The Enigma of the Stigma: A Case Study of the Validity of the Stigma Arguments Made in Opposition to Affirmative Action Programs in Higher Education,” Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal 21 (2005): 75; Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Emily Hough, and Mary Campbell, “Which Came First—Stigma or Affirmative Action?” California Law Review 96 (2008): 1299.

  70. Bakke, 438 U.S. 298 (1978).

  71. City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson, 488 U.S. 469, 493 (1989).

  72. Metro Broadcasting, 497 U.S. 635 (1990).

  73. Adarand v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200, 241 (1995) (Thomas, J., concurring).

  74. See Christopher Edley, Jr., “Doubting Thomas: Law Politics and Hypocrisy,” Washington Post, July 17, 1991.

  75. See Rupert W. Nacoste, “Policy Schemas for Affirmative Action,” in Linda Heath et al., eds., Application of Heuristics and Biases to Social Issues (1993), 205; Madeline E. Heilman et al., “Presumed Incompetent? Stigmatization and Affirmative Action Efforts,” Journal of Applied Psychology 77 (1992): 536; Luis T. Garcia et al., “The Effect of Affirmative Action on Attributions About Minority Group Members,” Journal of Personality 49 (1981): 427.

  76. See Gregory B. Northcraft and Joanne Martin, “Double Jeopardy: Resistance to Affirmative Action from Potential Beneficiaries,” in Barbara A. Gutek, ed., Sex Role Stereotyping and Affirmative Action Policy (1982), 81.

  77. See Linda Hamilton Krieger, “Civil Rights Perestroika: Intergroup Relations After Affirmative Action,” California Law Review 86 (1998): 1251, 1265.

  78. Midge Decter, “On Affirmative Action and Lost Self-Respect,” New York Times, July 6, 1980.

  79. Stephen C. Carter, Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby (1991), 47.

  80. Ibid., 49.

  81. Ibid., 5.

  82. Ibid., 12–14 (“prickly sensitivity is the best evidence … of one of the principal costs of racial preferences.…The terrible psychological pressure that racial preferences put on their beneficiaries”).

  83. Quoted in Carl Cohen and James P. Sterba, Affirmative Action and Racial Preference: A Debate (2003), 118.

  84. James Blanton, “A Limit to Affirmative Action?” Commentary, June 1989.

  85. See, e.g., Lani Guinier and Susan Sturm, Who’s Qualified? (2001).

  86. Susan Sturm and Lani Guinier, “The Future of Affirmative Action: Reclaiming the Innovative Ideal,” California Law Review 84 (1996): 953, 956.

  87. See Russell Jacoby and Naomi Glauberman, eds., The Bell Curve Debate (1995); Steven Fraser, ed., The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence, and the Future of America (1995).

  88. See, e.g., Myron Magnet, The Dream and the Nightmares: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass (2000); Dinesh D’Souza, The End of Racism: Principles for a Multicultural Society (2005); Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 (1984).

  89. Bowen and Bok, The Shape of the River, 265.

  90. See Spurlock v. United Airlines, 330 F.Supp. 228 (D. Colo.) aff’d 475 F.2d 216 (1972).

  91. Mary C. Curtis, “Opinion: Chelsea Clinton’s Affirmative Action TV Job,” Washington Post, December 15, 2011.

  92. Quoted in Emily Houth, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Mary Campbell, “Cracking the Egg: Which Came First—Stigma or Affirmative Action,” California Law Review 96 (2008): 1343.

  93. Letter to the Editor, New York Times, July 26, 1980.

  94. Bowen and Bok, The Shape of the River, 265.

  95. See Jill Elaine Hadey, “Protecting Them from Themselves: The Persistence of Mutual Benefits Arguments for Sex and Race Inequality,” New York University Law Review 84 (2009): 1464.

  96. See Sander and Taylor, Mismatch; Richard H. Sander, “A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools,” Stanford Law Review 57 (2004): 367. See also Thomas Sowell, “The Plight of Black Students in the United States,” Daedalus 103 (Spring 1974); Clyde Summers, “Preferential Admissions: An Unreal Solution to a Real Problem,” University of Toledo Law Review 2 (1970): 377.

  97. Sander, “A Systemic Analysis,” 481.

  98. Ibid., 372.

  99. See Adam Liptak, “For Blacks in Law School, Can Less Be More?” New York Times, February 13, 2005 (Sander “has found a new way to influence the debate”); Emily Bazelon, “Sanding Down Sander,” Slate, April 29, 2005.

  100. See Ian Ayres and Richard Brooks, “Does Affirmative Action Reduce the Number of Black Lawyers?” Stanford Law Review 57 (2005): 1807; David L. Chambers, Timothy T. Clydesdale, William C. Kidder, and Richard O. Lempert, “The Real Impact of Eliminating Affirmative Action in American Law Schools: An Empirical Critique of Richard Sander’s Study,” Stanford Law Review 57 (2005): 1855; David B. Wilkins, “A Systematic Response to Systemic Disadvantage: A Response to Sander,” Stanford Law Review 57 (2005): 1915.

  101. Ayres and Brooks, “Does Affirmative Action Reduce,” 1807, 1824.

  102. Ibid., 1825.

  103. Wilkins, “A Systematic Response to Systemic Disadvantage,” 1915.

  104. Ibid., 1931.

  105. Ibid.

  106. Ibid., 1932.

  107. See Chambers et al., “The Real Impact of Eliminating Affirmative Action,” 1893.

  108. See Kennedy, “Persuasion and Distrust,” 1327.

  109. See Sander, “A Systemic Analysis,” 370.

  110. Sander and Taylor, Mismatch, 61.

  111. See W. E. B. DuBois, “The Talented Tenth,” in Andrew Paschal, ed., A W. E. B. DuBois Reader (1971), 31.

  112. See, generally, Kenneth W. Mack, Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (2012).

  113. See, generally, Tseming Yang, “Choice and Fraud in Racial Identification: The Dilemma of Policing Race in Affirmative Action, the Census, and a Color-Blind Society,” Michigan Journal of Race and Law 11 (2006): 367; Christopher A. Ford, “Administering Identity: The Determination of ‘Race’ in Race-Conscious Law,” California Law Review 82 (1994): 1231; Christopher A. Ford, “Challenges and Dilemmas of Racial and Ethnic Identity in American and Post-Apartheid South African Affirmative Action,” UCLA Law Review 43 (1996): 1953; John Martinez, “Trivializing Diversity: The Problem of Overinclusion in Affirmative Action Programs,” Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal 12 (1995): 49; Luther Wright, Jr., “Who’s Black, Who’s White, and Who Cares: Reconceptualizing the United States’ Definition of Race and Racial Classification,” Vanderbilt Law Review 48 (1995): 513.

  114. Fisher v. University of Texas, 644 F.3d 301 (2011), Oral Argument Transcript, October 10, 2012.

  115. Edward E. Telles, Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil (2004), 264.

  116. See Marion Lloyd, “Affirmative Action, Brazilian-Style,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 11, 2009; Raymond Colitt and Stuart Grudings, “Brazil Pushes Quotas for Blacks Despite Criticism,” Reuters News, May 13, 2008.

  117. See Malone v. Haley, No. 88–339 (Sup. Jd. Ct., Suffolk County, Mass., 1989). See also Peggy Hernandez, “Firemen Who Claimed to Be Black Lose Appeal,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1989; Ford, “Administering Identity” 1231, 1232–34; Charlie Gerstein, “What Can the Brothers Malone Teach Us About Fisher v. University of Texas?” Michigan Law Review 111 (2012): 1; http://www.michiganlawreview.org/articles/what-can-the-brothers-malone-teach-us-about-em-fisher-v-university-of-texas-em.

  118. See Ariela Gross, What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America (2008).

  119. See Christine B. Hickman, “The Devil and the One Drop Rule: Racial Categories, African Americans, and the U.S. Census,” Michigan Law Review 95 (1997): 1161.

  120. See, e.g., Thomas Sowell, Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study (2005).

  121. City of
Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 506 (1989).

  122. See Podberesky v. Kirwan, 38 F.3d 147 (4th Cir. 1994).

  123. See Sharon S. Lee, “De-Minoritization of Asian Americans: A Historical Examination of the Representations of Asian Americans in Affirmative Action Admissions Policies at the University of California,” Asian American Law Journal 15 (2008): 129; Nancy Chung Allred, “Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again,” Asian American Law Journal 14 (2007): 57; Frank Wu, “Neither Black nor White: Asian Americans and Affirmative Action,” Boston College Third World Journal 15 (1995): 225; Selene Dong, “Too Many Asians: The Challenges of Fighting Discrimination Against Asian-Americans and Preserving Affirmative Action,” Stanford Law Review 47 (1995): 1027.

  124. Kevin Brown and Jeannine Bell, “Demise of the Talented Tenth: Affirmative Action and the Increasing Underrepresentation of Ascendant Blacks at Selective Higher Education Institutions,” Ohio State Law Journal 69 (2008): 1229.

  125. Ronald C. Roach, “Drawing Upon the Diaspora,” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, August 15, 2005. http://diverseeducation.com/article/4558.

  126. Brown and Bell, “Demise of the Talented Tenth,” 1281.

  3. THE COLOR-BLIND CHALLENGE TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

  1. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265,407 (1978) (Blackmun, J., concurring and dissenting).

  2. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701, 748 (2007).

  3. William Van Alstyne, “Rites of Passage: Race, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution,” University of Chicago Law Review 46 (1979): 775, 809–810.

  4. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 554–559 (1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting).

  5. Ibid., 557.

  6. Quoted in Kull, The Color-Blind Constitution, 22.