The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions - Review

Reason, Feb, 1999 by Richard A. Epstein

The case for affirmative action at the faculty level has to be weaker than it is for admission to college. Yet even here, no generalizations come easily because a lot depends on the mission of the college or university and the substantive demands of the discipline. The point is even more true once we abandon the high moral ground to examine, as Bowen and Bok urge us to do, the long-term impact of affirmative action on the vitality of universities.

The Shape of the River does deliver on its promise to supply facts that justify affirmative action in college and university admissions. The evidence that Bowen and Bok offer should be sufficient to answer across-the-board objections to affirmative action based solely on the self-evident truth of the color-blind position. But they still leave key questions about the appropriate use of affirmative action unanswered.

Even if there is a single, distinct colorblind approach to college and university admissions, there is no similar unity of approach for affirmative action. It could be practiced on a small scale or on a grand scale. It could be used to make sure that a critical mass of black students is enrolled in a given college. Or it could be used to make sure that the percentage of blacks in any institution is identical to that of blacks within a local community, a state, or the nation as a whole. There is no single answer to the question of how much affirmative action is ideal for any given institution of higher education. The right way to think about this question therefore starts with a strong preference for decentralized decision making. Let each college and university decide, free from government coercion (and that requires the repeal of the present version of 1964 Civil Rights Act as it applies to private colleges and universities), how much affirmative action it wants.

Many people on both sides of the affirmative action debate will recoil at the thought that private institutions should be allowed to chart their own course on this issue. The defenders of color-blind norms are often conservative defenders of free markets, but they are prepared to sacrifice freedom of contract and association to prevent what they regard as unacceptable discrimination. Meanwhile, the defenders of affirmative action want to use the stick of civil rights laws to maintain affirmative action, fearing that without coercion private colleges and universities will backslide into the traditional racial practices of Jim Crow.

This nightmare scenario is hard to take seriously. The key reason affirmative action survives is that it commands strong support within colleges and universities. The explanation for this support is both simpler and more powerful than is often acknowledged: It is simply not possible today for any major college or university to present itself to its alumni, its faculty, or its prospective students as a lily-white (or white and Asian) institution. Perhaps diversity doesn't enhance the educational experience. Perhaps it doesn't promote tolerance and understanding across groups. Perhaps affirmative action creates internal resentments, some serious instructional difficulties, and invidious individual comparisons. Perhaps it also creates an unfortunate set of desserts and rewards. No matter. So long as the demand for it remains, the practice will remain. Given this reality, the wise course is to decentralize the debate so that each college and university can make its own decisions, thereby shifting the focus from the lofty question of "whether" to the grubby question of "how much."