When Affirmative Action Was White

An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America

256 pages

English language

Published Aug. 14, 2006 by W. W. Norton.

ISBN:
978-0-393-32851-6
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5 stars (2 reviews)

Many mid 20th century American government programs created to help citizens survive and improve ended up being heavily biased against African-Americans. Katznelson documents this white affirmative action, and argues that its existence should be an important part of the argument in support of late 20th century affirmative action programs.

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Review of 'When Affirmative Action Was White' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Excellent book, that uses a historic view on New Deal legislation to show that, especially driven by the relentless racism of Southern Democrats, provisions were consistently included to largely keep the black population from those benefits. Ira Katznelson argues that this was equivalent to affirmative action for white people, and that understanding that can be used to guide a more successful, continued effort for affirmative action.

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