ABSTRACT
Today, discussions about race and college center on issues of diversity, the presence or absence of affirmative action, and multiculturalism in the curriculum. All of these are interrelated, and while they are not only about race they are almost always about who is included and who is excluded. These debates represent passionately held views on serious questions: What defines merit? Should education be conceived of as a privilege? Who gets to say what’s fair? Are difference and equality mutually exclusive? Should education serve democracy, and, if so, what would that look like? What experts and lay people all agree on is that educational attainment is highly correlated with the ability to choose one’s occupation and by extension the income and prestige associated with occupation. Perhaps it should not surprise us, then, that since higher education is a gateway to opportunity, access to it and what happens on campus have become contentious issues.
