Harvard professor says most people are thinking about diversity on college campuses all wrong

pulse

August 3, 2017 8:24 PM

"Because affirmative action now rests on the diversity rationale, people who embrace affirmative action have to make all sorts of claims for diversity."

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is engaged in an ongoing investigation into Harvard University's admissions practices.

On Tuesday, The New York Times published a bombshell report stating the Department of Justice (DOJ) would begin investigating affirmative-action practices on college campuses.

The news rattled many in the higher education community, who thought the issue had been quieted last year when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of affirmative action at the University of Texas Austin (UT).

The term "affirmative action" refers to policies which favor traditionally marginalized groups in decisions like college admissions.

The DOJ has since issued a statement that it had planned to review a single complaint of discrimination at Harvard University, not the policy as a whole, but its posting has reinvigorated a debate about the merits of affirmative action.

While proponents of affirmative action often cite diversity as one of its main goals, Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy thinks conversations about diversity distract people from the original goal of affirmative action: reparative justice for people who have traditionally been oppressed.

Kennedy believes that supporters invent excuses for why diversity is beneficial, but they don't always make sense.

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