"When Affirmative Action was White"

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of Ira Katznelson's book, "When Affirmative Action was White". The paper looks at the main idea of the book, some key supporting ideas or themes and the perspective the author assumes with regards to the historical record. The paper shows how although Katznelson presents a credible argument, his ideas are clearly biased.

From the Paper:

"The primary focus of Katznelson's book is to argue that affirmative action is not something that emerged substantively in the 1960s but, rather, has its roots in the policy decisions of the 1930s and 1940s. Specifically, policies crafted in that seemingly long-ago time dealt with issues like welfare and work in ways that marginalized the overwhelming majority of African-Americans - and this marginalization is still be felt even today. Furthermore, the inequalities that ostensibly found their expression in the legislation of the period were largely the product of trying to please Southern Democrats; to put it another way, Democratic representatives of the American south bristled at any attempt to elevate the condition of the "negro" and many of their Northern colleagues (on both sides of the aisle, apparently) ably assisted them in efforts to thwart meaningful reform (Katznelson, X). In a real sense, Katznelson wants to emphasize how the struggles of the past remain very much the struggles of the present - and how affirmative action today is only incompletely dealing with the issue of racial inequality."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Katznelson, Ira. When Affirmative Action was White. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.

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