Racism and Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action / Edition 1

by Gertrude Ezorsky

Overview

Affirmative action: does it really counteract racism? Is it morally justifiable? In her timely and tough-minded book, Gertrude Ezorsky addresses these central issues in the ongoing controversy surrounding affirmative action, and comes up with some convincing answers.

Ezorsky begins by examining the effectiveness of affirmative action as a remedy for institutional racism in the workplace. She analyzes the ways in which common practices-selection of employees based on personal connections, qualification, and seniority standards-perpetuate the injurious effect of past racial discrimination, and she assesses the rationale for such affirmative action measures as objective job-related testing, numerical goals, and preferential treatment for basically qualified blacks. To illuminate the social reality in which affirmative action takes place, she draws on recent work by social scientists and legal scholars.

Turning to the moral issues, Ezorsky posits two basic justifications for affirmative action: first, looking backward-to provide deserved compensation for past racial injustice that was sanctioned, practiced, and encouraged by our government; second, looking forward-to promote racial desegregation in the American workplace. Unlike some supporters of affirmative action, she does not deny that preferential treatment may place an unfair burden on white males. Indeed, she suggests specific practical measures for spreading that burden more equitably.

Clear-headed, well-reasoned, and persuasive, this book will be read eagerly by everyone from students to legislators, by anyone concerned with racial justice in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801499227
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	11/14/1991
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gertrude Ezorsky is Professor Emerita, City University of New York, Brooklyn College and the Graduate School. She is the author of Freedom in the Workplace, also from Cornell, and the editor of Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment and Moral Rights in the Workplace.

What People are Saying About This

Cornel West

After all the smoke clears over the debate about affirmative action—be it black middle-class anxieties about white peer respect or white claims of reverse discrimination—Gertrude Ezorsky's keen and acute arguments will shine. One hopes this levelheaded clarity will affect our political discourse in these troubled times.

Editorial Reviews

A lucid, refreshingly elegant guide to the history and moral foundations of affirmative action. In an era when so many programs are under attack as 'mere quota systems,' this book is an indispensable reminder of their variety and potential.

The Nation

Racism and Justice will add to the national debate on affirmative action.

-- "Library Journal"

A lucid, refreshingly elegant guide to the history and moral foundations of affirmative action. In an era when so many programs are under attack as 'mere quota systems, ' this book is an indispensable reminder of their variety and potential.

-- "The Nation"

Ezorsky's discussion of affirmative action programs is quietly methodical and admirably clearheaded. It is a useful starting point for any discussion of the morality of affirmative action.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

From the Publisher

Ezorsky ( Moral Rights in the Workplace ) focuses in this extended essay on affirmative action as a means to ending discrimination against African-Americans, arguing that the unique history of black Americans makes them a perfect test case of the policy's efficacy. She writes that ``from the post-Reconstruction period to the present . . . racist practices have continued to transmit and reinforce the consequences of slavery,'' relegating most blacks to jobs that would, 150 years ago, have been reserved for slaves. Moreover, she points out, race-neutral policies such as seniority have the same effect as overtly racist exclusion. Ezorsky's discussion of affirmative action programs is quietly methodical and admirably clear-headed; her prose, unfortunately, is often as dry as it is deliberate. When she turns her attention to the opposition, however, she begins to warm to the task. Although her argument is buttressed by key documents from recent studies, programs and legal cases, one wishes she had gone into greater detail on the nuts-and-bolts effects of the programs. Even so, the book is a useful starting point for any discussion of the morality of affirmative action. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This slender tract argues passionately that affirmative action has been and continues to be a necessary social policy to correct centuries of institutional racism directed at descendants of African slaves. Affirmative action occupies a central place in current controversies about individual rights versus group rights and government's role in balancing those competing rights. Readers seeking moral justification for affirmative action will find this book satisfying. Readers wanting to weigh alternatives will wish to consult opposing viewpoints (e.g., Thomas Sowell's Civil Rights , LJ 9/1/84) and works that consider both sides (e.g., Thomas Edsall's Chain Reaction , LJ 9/15/91; Stephen Carter's Reflections of an Af firmative Action Baby , LJ 9/15/91; Shelby Steele's The Content of Our Character , LJ 8/90). Ezorsky's book will add to the national debate on affirmative action. It is recommended for most libraries.-- Grace Franklin, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio

Library Journal

"After all the smoke clears over the debate about affirmative action—be it black middle-class anxieties about white peer respect or white claims of reverse discrimination—Gertrude Ezorsky's keen and acute arguments will shine. One hopes this levelheaded clarity will affect our political discourse in these troubled times."

Cornel West