NCJ Number
144977
Journal
Vanderbilt Law Review Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1991) Pages: 15-44
Date Published
1991
Length
30 pages
Annotation
The affirmative action debate has been framed in the contexts of two competing frameworks: the rhetoric of innocence and the rhetoric of guilt.
Abstract
The first is characterized by contemporaneous findings of actual discrimination used to gauge victim status. Adherents of this position claim that defining eligibility for benefits by group status rather than by individualized proof of victimization, harms innocent whites and benefit undeserving minorities. The other camp claims that "unconscious racism" makes it impossible for whites to treat blacks fairly and equally. This investigation of the rhetoric of equality implicates two central values of equality: the anti- discrimination principle disfavoring group-conscious decisions, as well as the separation of functions principle that recognizes the breakdown of the democratic process that occurs during race-conscious decision making. The structural approach described here avoids the pitfalls of both absolutist approaches by allowing for a limited judicial and a broad legislative role to redress the problems of unconscious racism. 181 notes