Conference: Is the Defense of Affirmative Action Lacking Urgency?

Conference: Is the Defense of Affirmative Action Lacking Urgency?: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although race-conscious affirmative action in higher education faces a “clear and present danger,” a case testing the use of race hasn’t prompted the same sense of urgency as the last time the issue came before the U.S. Supreme Court.

So lamented Dr. Gary Orfield, co-director of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA, in a brief speech he gave here Thursday at the 38th National Conference and Annual Meeting of the American Association for Affirmative Action, or AAAA.

“We’re talking about a fundamental risk for a tool that we have no effective alternative for in a society that has really a deepening of inequalities in college completion levels,” Orfield said during a luncheon panel that focused on education.