The End of Affirmative Action

A problematic concept of an age of intermarriage, assimilation, and immigration.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

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DryHundredFear via Flickr

Sometimes doctrines just vanish, once they appear as naked as the proverbial emperor in his new clothes.

Something like that seems now to be happening with affirmative action. Despite all the justifications for its continuance, polling shows the public still strongly disagrees with the idea of using racial criteria for admissions and hiring.

Its dwindling supporters typically include those who directly benefit from it, or who are not adversely affected by it. Arguments for the continuance of affirmative action are half-hearted and may explain why some supporters descend into name-calling directed at those who dare question its premises.

The Supreme Court, by a 6–2 majority, recently upheld the decision by Michigan voters that their state would neither favor nor discriminate against applicants to the state’s public universities on the basis of race. Continue reading “The End of Affirmative Action”

The Outdated Business Model of Diversity, Inc.

In today’s divided society, universities would be wise to stress unity and academic rigor.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

Diversity has become corporatized on American campuses, with scores of bureaucrats and administrators accentuating different pedigrees and

Americophile via wikicommons
Americophile via wikicommons

ancestries. That’s odd, because diversity  no longer means “variety” or “points of difference,” in the way it used to be defined.

Instead, diversity has become an industry synonymous with orthodoxy and intolerance, especially in its homogeneity of political thought.

When campuses sloganeer “celebrate diversity,” that does not mean they encourage all sorts of political views. If it did, faculties and student groups would better reflect the U.S.’s political realities and might fall roughly into two equal groups: liberal and conservative.

Do colleges routinely invite graduation speakers who are skeptical of man-made global warming, and have reservations about present abortion laws, gay marriage, or illegal immigration — if only for the sake of ensuring diverse views?

Nor does diversity mean consistently ensuring that institutions should reflect “what America looks like.”

If it did, all sorts of problems could follow. As we see in the NBA and NFL, for example, many of our institutions do not always reflect the proportional racial and ethnic makeup of America. Do we really want all institutions to weigh diversity rather than merit so that coveted spots reflect the race and gender percentages of American society?

Does anyone care that for decades the diverse state of California’s three most powerful elected officials have been most undiverse? Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barbara Boxer, and Senator Dianne Feinstein are all mature women, quite liberal, very wealthy, married to rich professionals or entrepreneurs, and all once lived within commuting distance of each other in the Bay Area. Continue reading “The Outdated Business Model of Diversity, Inc.”

The End of the Old Order

The well-intentioned social programs of the 1960s make no sense today.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Ideas of the 1960s have grown reactionary in our world, which is vastly different from the America of a half-century ago. Continue reading “The End of the Old Order”

From Affirmative Action to Diversity

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Sometime in the new millennium, “global warming” evolved into “climate change.” Continue reading “From Affirmative Action to Diversity”

Winning the Latino Vote

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Over the last three weeks, I think I have read most of the post-election op-eds written on the Latino vote. I have studied exit polling, read sophisticated demographic analyses, and talked to as many Latinos in my hometown as I could. The result is that I would not advise Republicans to go down the identity-politics route. Continue reading “Winning the Latino Vote”

Too Few Oppressors, Too Many Victims

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Since the election, some fatalistic Washington conservative elites have accepted — and Obama operatives have rejoiced in — a supposedly new and non-white-male ethnic electorate: Americans will be categorized, and collectively so, on the basis of largely how they look and, to a lesser extent, how they sound. Republicans, then, better get with the new tribalism and remarket themselves to address the new minority monolith. Continue reading “Too Few Oppressors, Too Many Victims”

Our Not So Best and Not So Brightest

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

From Eliot Spitzer to Elizabeth Warren to Fareed Zakaria — what is wrong with our elites? Continue reading “Our Not So Best and Not So Brightest”

Supreme Court Hypocrisies

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Until last week, Chief Justice John Roberts was vilified as the leader of a conservative judicial cabal poised to destroy the Obama presidency by overturning the federal takeover of healthcare. But with his unexpected affirmation, Roberts suddenly was lauded as the new Earl Warren — an “evolving” conservative who at last saw the logic of liberal big government. Continue reading “Supreme Court Hypocrisies”

Liberal Illiberalism: The Liberal Assault on Liberalism

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Conservatives are put into awkward positions of critiquing liberal ideas on grounds that they are impractical, unworkable, or counterproductive. Yet rarely, at least outside the religious sphere, do they identify the progressive as often immoral [1]. Continue reading “Liberal Illiberalism: The Liberal Assault on Liberalism”

Diversity, Inc.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

‘Affirmative action” was the logical sequel to the civil-rights legislation of the 1960s. The initial reasoning was attractive enough. Continue reading “Diversity, Inc.”