Debating Affirmative Action: Politics, Media, and Equal Opportunity in a “Postracial” America

摘要

This article explores how race-conscious education policy is interpreted in the political landscape of a “postracial” America. Based on a qualitative media analysis of the press coverage surrounding Amendment 46, an antiaffirmative action initiative, we examine language, statistics, and messages leveraged by advocates and critics of the ballot measure. We argue that despite using some of the same data sources, terms, and concepts, proponents and opponents of Amendment 46 proposed divergent policies. We analyzed this phenomenon vis-à -vis the framework of conflicting racial projects (Omi & Winant, 199467. Omi, M. and Winant, H. 1994. Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, New York, NY: Routledge. View all references), moral paradigms of race (Loury, 200254. Loury, G. 2002. The anatomy of racial inequality, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. View all references), and interpretations of equality of educational opportunity (Howe, 199743. Howe, K. 1997. Understanding equal educational opportunity: Social justice, democracy and schooling, New York, NY: Teachers College Press. View all references). Arguably, the public's understanding of race-conscious education policies relies in part on opportunities for researchers, journalists, and the public to deliberate about issues related to race. We conclude with some recommendations for fostering more communication and understanding based in deliberative democratic theory (Gutmann & Thompson, 199638. Gutmann, A. and Thompson, D. 1996. Democracy and disagreement, Cambridge, MA: Belknap. View all references, 2004).View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2011.616138