Triumph of an Ideology

IN January, President Bush announced his administration’s position on the University of Michigan’s Supreme Court cases on affirmative action. Educational traditionalists greeted his announcement with a mix of praise and concern. The president had denounced overtly race-conscious affirmative-action remedies, such as those practiced in Michigan’s undergraduate division. Unfortunately, however, he had also endorsed the idea of “diversity”— which is to say, racial and ethnic proportionality in the college population. And that’s an idea that may end up doing even more harm to America than overt racialist policies.

Carol lannone is editor-at-large of Academic Questions, the journal of the National Association of Scholars.

CI

About the Author

Carol Iannone

Carol Iannone writes on literature and culture.

IN January, President Bush announced his administration’s position on the University of Michigan’s Supreme Court cases on affirmative action. Educational traditionalists greeted his announcement with a mix of praise and concern. The president had denounced overtly race-conscious affirmative-action remedies, such as those practiced in Michigan’s undergraduate division. Unfortunately, however, he had also endorsed the idea of “diversity”— which is to say, racial and ethnic proportionality in the college population. And that’s an idea that may end up doing even more harm to America than overt racialist policies.

Carol lannone is editor-at-large of Academic Questions, the journal of the National Association of Scholars.