Thursday, October 27, 2005

Still Separate & Unequal

I recently posted an op-ed by Ira Katznelson, the author of the new book When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America, that tried to historicize the inequality and poverty that flashed before everyone's eyes during the Katrina debacle.

George Frederickson, the great historian of racism, has a review of Katznelson's book in the NYRB this week. Check it out if you want a short run-down of how affirmative action has disproportionately benefited whites since the New Deal. You won't be hearing Rush Limbaugh make that argument anytime soon.