Negative Discrimination

Peter Kirsanow considers the research of Dr. Peter Sander, Professor of Law at UCLA, in his article "Affirmative Damage." Kirsanow evaluates the evidence presented by Dr. Sander to show that affirmative actions programs, especially in the elite law schools, ill serve the students the programs were designed to help. On the contrary, the majority of the black students who enter these prestigeous law schools fail to graduate by a large percentage.

One point the Kirsanow fails to mention is that for every minority student who enters the schools under affirmative action - with the odds against their succeeding - a corresponding qualified non-minority student is denied entrance to the schools, thus ensuring that two, not one, individuals are hurt under the cover of affirmative action.

The British refer to affirmative action as 'positive discrimination.' Given Kirsanow review of Sander's data, the American system would well be called 'negative discrimination.' Like many other government programs, though, the idea of affirmative action is more important that the results.