Did Affirmative Action Work? | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU
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Before Affirmative Action, black Americans were closing education gaps, increasing incomes, and joining the middle class at record speed. But since the introduction of Affirmative Action, that progress has significantly slowed. How can we account for this? Jason Riley, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, explains Affirmative Action’s troubling legacy.
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Transcript:
Did Affirmative Action Work?
Presented by Jason Riley
Before Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell was for Affirmative Action, he was against it.
This is noteworthy because Bell is best known for his contributions to critical race theory—which claims that racism is embedded in American institutions and that the historical mistreatment of black people largely explains current disparities.
In a 1970 law-review article, Bell objected to using different criteria to assess student performance depending on race. In the past, he noted, the small percentages of blacks admitted to selective law schools “not only met the usual academic criteria, but were often characterized by a strong inner drive to equal and, if at all possible, excel their white classmates.”
Admitting blacks who did not meet accepted standards was, in Bell’s words, “a form of benevolent paternalism.”
He warned that racial preferences risked tainting the accomplishments of those who succeeded—in the eyes of whites and blacks alike. “Whatever arguments are used to justify such a policy,” he wrote, “there is little denying that it robs those black students who have done well of receiving real credit and the boost in confidence that their accomplishments merit.”
Although Bell later changed his mind, he offered a preview of
