Introduction

We begin our discussion by outlining the contours of the debate surrounding affirmative action in the US. To this end, we provide a brief historical account of the policy in general and then some details about the use of it in higher education in particular. Understanding the socio-historical context of affirmative action will provide a better understanding of why some arguments gain traction in the debate while others do not. Further, we address proposals suggesting diversity as the only constitutionally valid rationale for implementing affirmative action in higher education. We then discuss the complexities of diversity as it relates to affirmative action in higher education, and why this idea may not necessarily be popular among conservatives or liberals.

In this chapter, we also provide an insight into the ideological divides in politics, litigation, and public perception that drive the debate around affirmative action. We demonstrate how these dynamics influence public opinion on the policy. In general, public opinion polls regularly find that whites hold quite negative attitudes and beliefs (that is, frames of thought) toward affirmative action. As such, we note here how such negative impressions develop and find a voice via the operations of outside entities with the ability to shape public debate on such issues. While we return to this idea at the end of this chapter, we begin with a discussion of the emergence of affirmative action in the socio-political debate on the national stage.

The beginnings of affirmative action

Unequal relations and pernicious treatment of minorities have left an indelible mark on the current landscape of the US since its inception. From slavery to Jim Crow, the history of the US is inextricably connected with the oppression of African Americans and people of color. It was W.E.B. Du Bois ([1935] 2017, p 5) who poignantly stated in Black Reconstruction that “Black labor became the foundation stone not only of the Southern social structure but of Northern manufacture and commerce, of the English factory system, of European commerce, of buying and selling on a world-wide scale…” Thus, no region was exempt from the oppression of black bodies despite stereotypes of Southern intolerance and racism, which often paints whites in other regions of the country as innocent.