Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination? (Contemporary Issues Series) [Paperback]

Francis J. Beckwith (Editor), Todd E. Jones (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary Issues Series | Publication Date: September 1997

What is our goal: equal opportunity or equality of result? The debate rages on. The 5 November 1996 decision by voters in California to eliminate most forms of state sanctioned affirmative action ignited a civil rights debate that sent shock waves across the country. The vote had critics celebrating the dawn of a new era of equal rights, while opponents warned of school and workplace discrimination without the protective blanket of affirmative action. The question of racial equality has inspired new debate today, reminiscent of the conflicts of the 1960s. Again we ask ourselves: Is affirmative action necessary to maintain equal labour practices, school desegregation plans, and broad social standards of racial equality? Does affirmative action or laws to roll it back go against the idea of equality itself? Should race play an important role in college admissions and corporate hiring? Is affirmative action a poison instead of a cure? For some, it depends on how the term is defined.These and other questions are debated in this highly charged collection of essays by a distinguished group of politicians, philosophers, educators, and others including Tom Beauchamp, Ward Connerly, Ronald Dworkin, Stanley Fish, Lyndon Johnson, Nicholas LeMann, Louis Pojman, George Sher, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Richard Wasserstrom, Cornell West, and Steven Yates. Included also in this book are important legal decisions bearing on affirmative action.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573921572
• ISBN-13: 978-1573921572
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University. During the 2008-2009 I am serving on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame as the Mary Ann Remick Senior Visiting Fellow in the Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clueless in Seattle, September 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination? (Contemporary Issues Series) (Paperback)

Beckwith and Jones perform an excellent service by admitting to the difficulty of this important issue by sharing intelligent observations from both sides of the table. "Reader in Seattle" is just another clueless woman whose ignorant comments admit to her bigotry.

Intelligent, open-minded readers will enjoy this collection.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good overview of the subject, but an updated edition would be great, October 1, 2008

By 

Walter Bonam (New Orleans, LA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination? (Contemporary Issues Series) (Paperback)

In the landscape of American life, are there any social problems more vexing and more persistent than those involving race? The answer, clearly, is no, and within the racial realm, few issues stir more heated controversy than does affirmative action. (Although later amended to include women, affirmative action began as an effort chiefly to redress the social, educational and economic grievances of black Americans that are rooted in racial discrimination, and the ongoing debate remains primarily focused on race, rather than gender.) The myriad connotations attached to the term, arising from the widely varied policies and programs instituted under the rubric of affirmative action, have muddied the waters of discourse and fueled venomous exchanges between proponents and opponents of race-conscious remedies. As a result, discussions of affirmative action on the popular level (e.g. radio talk shows and coffee break conversations) often tend toward emotion-driven ad hominem attacks, and seldom contribute to increased understanding or any closing of the ideological gap. Even the Supreme Court justices have demonstrated the difficulty of trying to approach the complexities of A.A. with any degree of consistency, and their rulings have therefore tended to add fuel to the rhetorical fire, rather than tempering or extinguishing it.

In the midst of such rancor and confusion, Beckwith and Jones' book is refreshing. Co-edited by men on opposite sides of the issue whose maturity has nevertheless enabled them to work congenially together, the book is what Fox News only claims to be: fair and balanced. It is comprised of separate (and generally very clearly written) essays on affirmative action by authors from various points along the ideological spectrum and from different academic disciplines (or, as in the case of anti-affirmative action firebrand Ward Connerly, from no area of discernible academic expertise). The result is a nuanced book that looks at A.A. in terms of its philosophical underpinnings, its history from a governmental and legal perspective, and a number of concrete, specific issues connected with it. The co-editors have chosen a subtitle--"Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination?"--that reflects how affirmative action is generally framed (respectively) by its proponents and its opponents, thereby exemplifying even in the book's title how linguistic labels are often used to shape attitudes regarding matters of controversy.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for a clearer understanding of what affirmative action is and is not. Whether you are (like me) a staunch advocate of affirmative action, a vehement opponent of A.A., or someone with no definite stance on the issue who simply wants to move beyond the sound-bite level of discourse toward a deeper understanding of affirmative action and the controversy surrounding it, you will find much of value in this book. If you already stand firmly on one side of the issue or the other, it will expose you to intelligent arguments on the other side, as well as sound reasoning to support your view.

I'd love to see an updated edition of this book that would include analyses of the affirmative action cases heard by the Supreme Court in the years since its original publication. Even without such an update, however, highly recommended for the general reader as well as students keenly interested in education, law, philosophy, political science, public policy, or life itself.

3 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Affirmative Discrimination A.K.A. Racist Action, March 2, 2004

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Onyx "whitemale" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination? (Contemporary Issues Series) (Paperback)

Applying a system which restricts access to wealth and opportuinity to racial and gender based criteria is a form a social engineering that is tantamount to that favoured by the NAZIS and the Stalinist Empire in the 1930's. However,as insidious as the the application of Affirmative Discrimination is in the US, it pales in comparison to what is currently being perpetrated in South Africa.For every white male job applicant in South Africa there are approximately twenty to fifty black applicants (yes a black majority!), yet it is the minority which legislation enforces discrimination against.Proponents of Affirmative Action would argue that it is minorities which need and deserve protection - how is it then that Affirmative Action is always designed to benefit a particular race group, and specifically designed to discriminate against white males specifically - no matter what their individual circumstances.
In South Africa defenceless white males are prevented by legisaltion from receiving equal access to wealth, opportuinity, tertiary education and training - all justified by the ANC governments' racial engineering strategy.The silence of the Western media on this matter(particularly the BBC)borders on the criminal.(The ANC controlled media does not deserve mention as it is merely a propaganda engine.)
AA selection criteria result many meritous white applicants being arbritarily rejected, nevermind their academic qualifications, experience or socio-economic status.Instead of ensuring that all meritous applicants, regardless of race, be allowed an equal chance to compete, non-meritous black applicants were given preference over skilled white applicants - pure racial engineering. In South Africa the ANC uses demographic and occupational statistics in an attempt to justify its' heinous racial engineering agenda.The strategy being pursued by the racist ANC regime demands that the majority of skilled positions available in the economy be occupied by blacks, and imposes substantial financial penalties, and refuses lucrative government tenders, to those organisations who fail to comply speedily enough.This effectively dooms an entire generation of young, white South African males to a future of poverty, regardless of their educational level.This is tantamount to ethnic cleansing and ethnic cleansing is Genocide. This, not crime, is the primary reason for the brain drain from South Africa as many white males would otherwise be reduced to the level of beggars.
Affirmative Action is a Gross Human Rights Violation and must be declared a Crime Against Humanity.
It goes without saying that its' victims should be paid substantial reparations for the economic, psychological and emotional trauma they suffered by having their basic human rights violated by Nazis style social engineering.