Summary Of When Affirmative Action Was White

In Ira Katznelson’s book, When Affirmative Action Was White, he establishes a clear, understood meaning of affirmative action. In this text, affirmative action is best described as policies enacted around the mid-1900s that required traditionally marginalized minorities to be in spaces (such as classrooms, workplaces, and sports teams) to help level the playing field. Essentially, affirmative action policies sought to give benefits to minorities as compensation to alleviate past ills. The book’s title, however, seems to flip this definition on its head, describing a time where affirmative action policies were arranged to favor white people. Katznelson argues that New Deal era policies were created to continue legal segregation without truly

The GI Bill, which was officially known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was meant to help veterans of World War II settle down and adjust to civilian life once more. This was accomplished by providing qualifying veterans with funds that would allow them to attend college, purchase homes, and learn useful trade skills. The GI Bill was the first ‘color-blind’ social legislation (Katznelson, 118). It was created in the Committee on World War Legislation in the House of Representatives, which was headed by a representative from Mississippi who was known for being outwardly racist and discriminatory. It was in this committee that the GI Bill became a vehicle to ensure that white Americans would benefit the most from affirmative action, and this was done by leaving the implementation of the GI Bill up to the states and localities. Essentially, while the GI Bill may have been supervised by Congress, it was required to be implemented through the states, where details were reliant on the discretion of local officials. This resulted in the GI Bill being unevenly administered throughout the United States, and in some cases, blatantly favoring white veterans while discounting black veterans. It was especially obvious in education, as it was found that "The GI Bill exacerbated rather than narrowed the economic and educational differences between blacks and whites" due to black colleges being

Katznelson’s argument that affirmative action policies were enacted with purposeful, deliberate discrimination is convincing. Namely, he considers the historical context that would have shaped Americans at the time and swayed their opinions. For example, Katznelson references the Civil War and the end of slavery, and how these events shaped the attitudes of key players like the Southern Democrats, which would then result in the faulty policies that perpetuated affirmative action’s favoritism of whites. His evidence is sufficient as well. Katznelson highlights the trend of Southern Democrats interfering in affirmative action policies and the footholds they had in specific acts. When combined with his analysis of historical context, his evidence only becomes more compelling. Though he approaches the situation very clinically, he draws a distinct line through several events and traces them back to one root political party, the Southern Democrats, and then to one root historical event, the Civil War, making his reasoning compelling. Admittedly, there may have been other, more subtle factors at play that could have shaped American attitudes at the time, but Katznelson provides detail on factors that preserved white favoritism in affirmative action policies, ultimately resulting in a compelling, convincing