Several proponents of affirmative action who were interviewed cited the scandal to dismiss the notion, advanced by some opponents of the policy, that America has moved beyond racial discrimination.

California's decision in 1996 to outlaw the use of race in public college admissions was widely viewed as the beginning of the end for affirmative action at public universities all over the United States. But in the four years since Californians passed Proposition 209, most states have agreed that killing affirmative action outright would deepen social inequality by denying minority citizens access to higher education.

Justice Ginsburg has long argued that percentage plans are just as race-conscious as traditional affirmative action: They seek to increase enrollment among minorities, and they work because the high schools are segregated.

The debate on specific affirmative actions has similarly been reduced to mean quotas and preferential treatment of minorities and white women at the expense of white males.

Affirmative action

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms