Does Affirmative Action Stigmatize Students? - Julian Bond and Dalton Conley April 27, 2009

Favorite:

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/04/16/Race_vs_Class_The_Future_of_Affirmative_Action

Julian Bond, NAACP Chairman, debates Dalton Conley, NYU Dean of Social Sciences, about the psychological harm of affirmative action. Conley argues that all unequal admissions such as legacy, donor, and athletic admissions are subject to stigmatization.

-----

Over the past several years, race-based opportunity policies have been on the defensive. In 2006, 58% of Michigan voters approved a statewide referendum ending affirmative action in public education.

A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court forced public school administrators to use socioeconomic status, not race, to integrate segregated public schools.

President Barack Obama injected energy into the race-versus-class debate when he suggested that poor whites should at times be given preference over more privileged blacks. - Miller Center of Public Affairs

Julian Bond has been an activist in the movements for civil rights, economic justice, and peace since he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. He has served four terms on the NAACP's National Board, and has been Chairman since 1998. He was President of the Atlanta NAACP (1978-89). Bond serves on the board of the Southern Poverty Law Center, where he is President Emeritus, and was President and founder of the Southern Elections Fund, helping elect rural Southern black candidates. He served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives (1965-75) and six terms in the Georgia Senate (1975-86).

Dalton Conley is a university professor of the social sciences and chair of sociology at New York University. He offers an essential understanding of how these changes have reshaped our world and our lives. Dalton Conley's essays have appeared in numerous publications; his previous books include Being Black, Living in the Red, Honky, and The Pecking Order.