The Ups and Downs of Affirmative Action Preferences

by M. Ali Raza, A. Janell Anderson, Harry Glynn Custred

Overview

In the context of the evolution of affirmative action at the national and state levels, this study offers an empirical account of the citizens' movement in California that successfully resulted in the passage of a constitutional amendment to abolish such preferences in public education, public employment, and public contracting. It describes how the concept of affirmative action was transmuted into quotas and set-asides even in those situations where there was no credible evidence of past discrimination. This process was aided by Presidential Executive Orders as well as by some Supreme Court decisions which, until the late 1980s, failed to provide clear parameters of compensatory versus preferential actions. The California movement arose to reassert the original vision of equality as contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Raza, Anderson, and Custred, who have studied the historical development of the phenomenon and have witnessed its actual operation, lift the curtain of secrecy that surrounds such preferences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313001239
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/30/1999
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	322 KB

About the Author

M. ALI RAZA teaches at the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento. He served as a visiting Fulbright Professor at Vidyodaya University in Sri Lanka and as a senior adviser to the Government of Sri Lanka's United Nations' Development Program.

A. JANELL ANDERSON a Political Scientist who teaches Business Law and Organizational Behavior at the College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento. She and M. Ali Raza coauthored Labor Relations and the Law (1996). She has published other works on government regulation of business.

HARRY GLYNN CUSTRED, JR. is Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Hayward. His field is cultural and linguistic anthropology. He is coauthor and principal of California's Proposition 209 which ended racial, ethnic, and sex preferences in the public sector.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Origin of Affirmative Action: National Conscience and the Quest for Equality
From Individual Rights to Group Preferences: Supreme Court Decisions (Griggs to Metro)
One Step Backward and Two Forward
Affirmative Action Diversity: A Euphemism for Preferences, Quotas, and Set-Asides
Preferences in California Colleges and Universities and Academic Resistance
The California Civil Rights Initiative: Proposition 209
The Ending of Affirmative Action Preferences in California: Testing the Constitutional Amendment

Editorial Reviews

Attributing the development of affirmative action to the influence of elites and racial agitators who promoted "political correctness," white guilt, and a culture of victimhood, the authors (one of whom helped engineer California's 1996 Proposition 209 which ended affirmative action in the public sector) focus on events in California, particularly the legal battles that have taken place over these issues. The volume ends with a summary of current enrollment and costs in California higher education, as well as some recent court cases. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews