Nicole's Reviews > Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study

I thought this was a fantastic book. A truly well-researched empirical study of affirmative action. While I've also read McWhorter and so have read some tough love for the black community, this is the first book I've read on these types of issues that isn't mostly anecdotal. Things that struck me the most were the link between preferences and rising racial tensions; that minority students mismatched with schools too difficult for them tend to become activists at the school and blame the school's discrimination for their failure; observations on the "creamy layer" (more privileged minorities getting the lion's share of preferences); the fact that women who don't interrupt their careers for childrearing make more money than men; and that Asian minorities in the US have gone from the bottom to the top without preferences. Aside from the fact that affirmative action hasn't worked, and the stigma it places on us in schools and in the workplace; it also starts getting ridiculous if you really think about it. At this point, everyone is just hating on white men. EVERYONE's presence is considered preferable to white males. Every non-white-male group has their own exclusionary organizations. Actually, with the gay rights movement, we've carved it down to straight white males. As Dr. Sowell says, these politics are great for people who want to make a living as activists, but there is no incentive to ever STOP being an activist when goals are met. And curricula cater to these activists. Women's Studies, Black Studies, Queer Studies--whatever happened to History, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Literature? It seems like these majors are more journeys of self-discovery than they are training people for careers.

Anyway, I loved this book, but I had to take off a star because they stopped editing somewhere after the middle of the book. Suddenly there were so many typos, wrong words, repeated words, etc. Also, the end was a bit long and repetitive and could have used a little tightening up (editing). Still, definitely worth reading.