The Retreat from Race: Asian-American Admissions and Racial Politics

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Rutgers University Press, 1992 - Education - 246 pages
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"An excellent book. Takagi takes a very complex and sensitive subject--racial politics--and shows, through a careful analysis . . . that changes in the discourse about Asian American admissions have facilitated a 'retreat from race' in the area of affirmative action. . . . This book will appeal to an audience significantly wider than a typical academic one."-- David Karen, Bryn Mawr College

Charges by Asian Americans that the top universities in the United States used quotas to limit the enrollment of Asian-American students developed into one of the most controversial public controversies in higher education since the Bakke case. In Retreat from Race, Dana Takagi follows the debates over Asian-American admissions at Berkeley, UCLA, Brown, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton. She explains important developments in the politics of race: changes in ethnic coalitions, reconstruction of the debate over affirmative action, and the conservative challenge to the civil rights agenda of the 1960s. Takagi examines the history and significance of the Asian American admissions controversy on American race relations both inside and outside higher education.

Takagi's central argument is that the Asian-American admissions controversy facilitated a subtle but important shift in affirmative action policy away from racial preferences toward class preferences. She calls this development a retreat from race. Takagi suggests that the retreat signals not only an actual policy shift but also the increasing reluctance on the part of intellectuals, politicans, and policy analysts to identify and address social problems as explicitly racial problems.

Moving beyond the university setting, Takagi explores the political significance of the retreat from race by linking Asian-American admissions to other controversies in higher education and in American politics, including the debates over political correctness and multiculturalism. In her assessment, the retreat from race is likely to fail at its promise of easing racial tension and promoting racial equality.

 

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The retreat from race: Asian-American admissions and racial politics

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Spurred by the knowledge that top universities use quotas to limit the enrollment of Asian Americans, Takagi (sociology, Univ. of California) examines the history and significance of the admissions ... Read full review

Selected pages

Contents

Asian Americans and Racial Politics
1
Discrimination 19831986
21
State and Federal Reviews
84
The New Affirmative Action
140
The Retreat from Race
172
Copyright

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academic According achievement addition administrators admis admission rates admissions officers admissions policy admitted affirmative action applicants argued arguments Asian admissions Asian American applicants Asian American students Berkeley bias Brown called campus Chancellor changes charges Civil Rights claims committee competitive concerns conservative controversy criteria critics debate decision decline differences discourse discrimination discrimination against Asians discussion diversity enrollment equal ethnic example explanation facts faculty findings graduate Harvard higher education important increasing individual interest Interview issue late less letter liberal mean meeting minority model minority neoconservative organizations percent political pool practices problem Professor programs qualified question quotas race racial politics racial preferences racism relations response result rhetoric schools scores selective shift sions social standards Stanford statistics suggested task force tion UCLA undergraduate university officials Wang York

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Bibliographic information

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TitleThe Retreat from Race: Asian-American Admissions and Racial Politics
The Retreat from Race: Asian-American Admissions and Racial Politics, Dana Y. Takagi
AuthorDana Y. Takagi
PublisherRutgers University Press, 1992
ISBN0813519144, 9780813519142
Length246 pages
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