Rainbow Warriors

Top US firms who are minority votaries

• Dell Inc
• Xerox Corporation
• Procter and Gamble
• Motorola Corporation
• Johnson and Johnson
• Lockheed Martin
• IBM
• Chrysler Corporation
• Bausch & Lomb
• Colgate-Palmolive

• Harvard University
• Princeton University
• Yale University
• University of Michigan
• Columbia University
• University of Colorado
• Georgetown University
• George Washington University
• Cornell University
• University of Pennsylvania

Outlook

Affirmative Action in the United States and India: A Comparative Perspective

No colour codes: NY Police Academy graduates throw their gloves in the air, part of a convocation ritual

Neither grades nor race is the sole factor universities take into account here at the time of admission. This is why Shirley Wilcher, interim executive director of the Washington-based American Association for Affirmative Action, says the backlash against AA is unreasonable. Colleges don't just consider grades for admission, even in the case of White students. They look for "interesting students. They look for interesting stories and experiences". Universities also take into account a student's statement of purpose, her hobbies, and her sense of self. Race is just one more factor on a long list of prerequisites for admission. Wilcher, therefore, says it's absurd to believe students admitted under AA are underqualified. "Colleges don't admit just anyone," she argues. "They admit students who they believe can survive the academic experience." More than Blacks, it's White females who have benefited from AA, yet few have criticised the advantages accruing to them.

All set for sail: US troops at a parade in Ellis Island, NY

In the absence of quotas, most universities decide on their own the number of students who ought to be admitted under AA. Prof Kevin Brown of Indiana University says one method of deciding on the precise number is to have a notion of critical mass. "Invariably, this would be around 15 per cent of the total population of students in college. But unlike a fixed quota, the critical mass could vary," he says.

Such concepts, though, are the concern of just a fifth of all universities in the US. As Prof Orfield says, "This is because most of our universities are not very competitive. In most universities, they admit most of the students who apply." But AA has also transformed elite institutions like Harvard. "Before AA, the top tier of our system was overwhelmingly White," Prof Orfield points out.

AA is not restricted to the universities. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, which requires that businesses and universities receiving federal contracts do not discriminate, and also that they must use AA in employment. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in the US department of labour conducts regular evaluations, and cancels contracts of those found in non-compliance. It also gives awards every year to contractors who have established comprehensive workforce strategies to ensure equal employment opportunity.

Here again, though, there are no fixed quotas. Every company evolves its own AA policy, including recruitment and placement goals. "The AA regulations emphasise that goals are not quotas...the measure for compliance is a good faith effort," says Wilcher who headed the OFCCP during the Clinton years.

Three states though have outlawed AA. In November 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, a measure that outlawed racial preferences in the operation of public employment, education and contracting. Ditto Washington state and Florida. Incidentally, following Proposition 209, the University of Berkeley in California has witnessed a sharp decline in its Black student population.

Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, endorses such enactments. A Black himself, he argues, "Affirmative action confines Black people to a lifetime of differential treatment on the premise that they cannot compete." There's also the "social cost" of resentment among those who feel they have been kept out by less qualified people. "There is even more resentment when you are generations away from the harm that was done to one's ancestors. People who are benefiting now from AA never lived as slaves," Connerly points out.

He says the quality of University of California improved following the adoption of Proposition 209, and the university began admitting students on academic achievements alone. "Colleges are lowering standards to admit Blacks, native Americans and Hispanics," he laments, claiming children of these social groups are simply not interested in pursuing academics.

All together: University of Michigan students applaud a Supreme Court verdict favouring affirmative action in admissions

upporters of AA, however, claim it's erroneous to link meritocracy exclusively to standardised tests. Test scores, as Prof Orfield contends, are crucially dependent upon students' family backgrounds, their wealth, their privileged schooling. "If you're going to just admit on the basis of test scores, you will be perpetuating social stratification, not just on racial but also on class grounds," he warns, claiming tests are imperfect indicators of what students could achieve in their life. "But if you consider merit to be determination and willingness to learn, and not just reflections of the opportunities you've had, you will identify different kinds of students. These students do just as well as ones you pick on the basis of test scores," he asserts.

Theodore L. Spencer, executive director of undergraduate admissions at University of Michigan, has this to say about the institute's experience of AA, "Many students come to this university to get a diverse experience. They feel diversity has helped them. Businesses also say that students who come from colleges with diverse backgrounds do better. The military has said the same thing about its leaders." This apart, Spencer says minority students who have graduated from good universities have done exceedingly well.

Wilcher agrees, contending that much of the Black middle class in the US owes its success to AA. For this reason alone, AA should continue, irrespective of the opposition to it. She says, "You will always have detractors who feel they will be at the losing end because they have to compete with people they wouldn't have had to compete against in the first place. But these people have the talent...they simply need to be given the opportunity." Those who have had the opportunity are making America proud. Think of Condoleezza Rice, think of another AA beneficiary—her predecessor Colin Powell.