When Affirmative Action Was White by Ira Katznelson

Fifty years ago , who could have imagined that workforce diversity would become a corporate buzzword ? Or that people of color and women would be represented among the nation 's most high-pro positions from the United States Supreme Court to T .V . news anchors to the ranks of elite professionals and even CEO 's ? These are among the most visible and lasting achievements of the civil rights and women 's movements that emerged in the 1950 's and 1960 's . And yet , on a more fundamental level the United States remains a long way

from anything approximating equality along race and gender lines , despite the very real changes that have taken place . As countless social scientists have documented , most African Americans , as well as Latinos , remain concentrated at or near the bottom of the labor market indeed , all too many cannot find employment at all . The vast majority of women workers are still in sex-segregated , low-status , poorly paid jobs , even as some of their more fortunate sisters have gained entry to what were not very long ago exclusively male professions and other elite positions

Anyone who has examined the efforts to integrate African-Americans women , or other disadvantaged groups into the U .S . workforce has encountered this paradoxical combination of change and continuity that marks the past half century . On the one hand , the civil rights and feminist movements struggle to open up educational and labor market opportunities to once-excluded groups has brought important transformations . Today , universities and corporations alike explicitly support...