Toward a More Equitable Society: Moving Forward in the Struggle for Affirmative Action

The organized political efforts to dismantle affirmative action programs resulted in both advantages and disadvantages in keeping the doors of higher education open to historically underrepresented students. The advantages included short-term solutions to underrepresentation such as developing alternative admission criteria for higher education. The most important long-term disadvantage was the success of the anti-affirmative action organizers to shift the discourse for educational equity from one of social justice to one of "diversity." The most recent legal requirements necessitate that affirmative action programs benefit all students. Questions of social justice are no longer legally viable. Future educational access for underrepresented students hangs in the balance if future research proves that diversity does not demonstrate an educational advantage for all students.