The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action [Hardcover]

It is against this background, that THE REMEDY is offered. Its very name is offered as a portent of what is possible if we could dispense with the ideologues and polemicists. The book is actually quite moderate, thoughtful and most importantly - egalitarian. Some of the points that that the book develops on are:

(1) Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy never endorsed racial preferences; the arguments supporting affirmative action were always couched in terms of it being a compensatory program that would benefit the disadvantaged of all races.

(2) Only an affirmative action based on class will provide genuine individual equal opportunity; this for both poor blacks and poor whites.

(3) Mr Kahlenberg says that after King and Kennedy, a shift took place in the 1970's; from compensation to diversity - "from racial preferences as a temporary bridge to color-blindness, to racial preferences as a permanent way of life." Mr Kahlenberg is considerate of conservative sensibilities by not pointing out that it was under a Republican that affirmative action first bacame race based. John David Skretny in THE IRONIES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, and others, have pointed out that it was used as part of a brilliant wedge strategy by Nixon to drive working class unionized white males, and southern whites, out of the Democratic Party and to the Republicans. It worked.

Mr Kahlenberg proposes a formula or method for calculating disadvantage. It is sufficiently encompassing, taking the following into consideration: parental income, occupation, education, net worth, family structure and neighborhood factors. There are many who would wish this whole affirmative action debate to go away. This book is not for them; they can relax and forget about the poor. Meantime, for more thoughtful persons it may be refreshing to know that, generally, as a nation, we still remain committed to our universalistic ideals. In an opinion poll done by PUBLIC AGENDA in 1998, over 87% of individuals polled said it was essential that there should be equal opportunity for people regardless of their race, religion or sex. Even on the supposedly contentious issue of affirmative action, a GALLUP POLL done in January, 2000 found that nearly 60% of us are still in favor of affirmative action.

Regarding 1), Kahlenberg doesn't realize that people of color are concentrated among the poorest of the poor. He constantly pulls out the hackneyed argument that "it's unfair to give the preference to the kid of the black doctor over the kid of the white garbage collector" argument, as if these two constantly find themselves competing for admission to Berkeley or Yale - it's usually the white doctor's kid vs. the black doctor's kid. He fails to acknowledge that SAT scores for the children of black college graduates are lower than that of white high school graduates. He constantly praises people like Ward Connerly and bashes black leaders for criticizing black conservatives. Despite the fact that less than 20% of all high-scoring low-income SAT scorers are Black or Latino, he still assumes that beneficiaries of his plan will be at least 25% Black.

As for 2.), he assumes that people like Newt Gingrich and Clarence Thomas SUPPORT his ideas, since they mention the "unfairness" of affirmative action to the white working class. They have no such plan in the making.

In conclusion, no matter what your views are on AA, this book is too poorly thought-out to be of use for anyone.