ABSTRACT
Likewise, defenders of affirmative action in the academic realm have placed almost all of their emphasis on demonstrating the benefits of diversity, at colleges and universities especially, rather than discussing the entrenched forms of ongoing white privilege and preference that make affirmative action and "diversity" necessary. In so doing, they too have hoped to avoid the sticky, sometimes difficult discussions with which whites in particular are so uncomfortable, concerning privilege, institutional racism, and justice. Although this strategy has prevailed, for now, at the Supreme Court level (as with the University of Michigan Law School case), it remains to be seen whether emphasizing the benefits of diversity will prove to be a winning strategy in the court of public opinion. And ultimately it is that court where support will be crucial to sustaining a long-term commitment to racial equity and justice in this country.
