Gail Heriot inspects the rotten fruit of affirmative action

UNTIL recently, Patrick Chavis’s claim to fame was that he was admitted to the University of California at Davis Medical School as an affirmative-action student in 1973—the year Allan Bakke was rejected. Because of Chavis’s outspoken advocacy of racial preferences, the media sometimes referred to him as “the” student admitted in Bakke’s place—although, strictly speaking, he was one of several possibilities.

Chavis went on to become an obstetrician/gynecologist in Compton, California, a mostly minority suburb of Los Angeles. Chavis also became a much-celebrated symbol of racial preferences. When the New York Times Magazine published Nicholas Lemann’s ten-page paean to affirmative action in 1995, Dr. Chavis’s picture graced the cover. Inside was a full-page photograph of him cradling a newborn.

GH

About the Author

Gail Heriot

Gail Heriot is a law professor at the University of San Diego and a Member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Featured Tags

UNTIL recently, Patrick Chavis’s claim to fame was that he was admitted to the University of California at Davis Medical School as an affirmative-action student in 1973—the year Allan Bakke was rejected. Because of Chavis’s outspoken advocacy of racial preferences, the media sometimes referred to him as “the” student admitted in Bakke’s place—although, strictly speaking, he was one of several possibilities.

Chavis went on to become an obstetrician/gynecologist in Compton, California, a mostly minority suburb of Los Angeles. Chavis also became a much-celebrated symbol of racial preferences. When the New York Times Magazine published Nicholas Lemann’s ten-page paean to affirmative action in 1995, Dr. Chavis’s picture graced the cover. Inside was a full-page photograph of him cradling a newborn.