Ending Racial Preferences

Reviews / Votes

Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story tells how determined citizens mobilized to end racial preferences despite the opposition of every civic and political institution in the state. The success of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative vindicates Allen's belief in the ability of democratic institutions to withstand the pressures of modern interest group politics. -- Terence J. Pell, President, Center for Individual Rights This book tells one of the great 'David vs. Goliath' stories in modern Michigan politics. The odds that Towards a Fair Michigan had to overcome were truly overwhelming; no matter where you stand on Affirmative Action, you will get a real education from reading how this small, tightly-organized group managed to win. -- Bill Ballenger, editor,Inside Michigan Politics Two virtues give this book extraordinary value. It provides a wealth of accurate and little-known detail about the origin and passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative-an authoritative account that will never be matched. It also provides an inspiring model for the working of democracy. Ordinary citizens may collectively, as Aristotle wrote and Carol Allen shows, achieve surpassing wisdom "when they meet together." -- Carl Cohen, professor of philosophy, University of Michigan Carol Allen has written a scholarly yet absorbing account of the scorching battle to end Michigan's use of race-based preferences in university admissions, hiring and contracting, including her own efforts to inject a degree of civility and rationality into the campaign. But she sees clearly that the success of the ballot measure in Michigan is only a beginning: she argues persuasively for substituting a vision of "inclusiveness" for policies based on increasingly narrow-minded notions of multiculturalism and diversity. -- Tom Bray, former editorial page editor and columnist of The Detroit News