ABSTRACT
On May 1, 1992, Rodney King, a man whose beating by police after a routine traffic stop was captured on video and whose attackers were exonerated by a jury, sparking several nights of violence in the streets of Los Angeles, pleaded with the American people at a press conference, “I just want to say, you know, can we, can we all get along, can we, can we get along?” 1 King’s plea tapped a desire that nearly all Americans have, and yet experience shows us that, as a nation and as a people, we have still not yet figured out how to “get along.” There are an unlimited number of experts who are willing to tell us why we fail in this, but, in truth, there are a limited number of cultural narratives that these experts tap and formulate into their unique specific narrative. This chapter will begin by clarifying some language about racism and then will explore a few of the cultural narratives that Americans often draw upon when discussing educational issues. In this chapter, I focus on the issue of affirmative action in college admissions to provide a concrete example.
