2023 #20: Undermining Racial Justice (Johnson)

 

Undermining Racial Justice: How One University Embraced Inclusion and Inequality by Matthew Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started this book in 2020 and have read it in fits and starts since then, but truly I cannot imagine a better book to have returned to in the last few weeks as the Supreme Court erodes justice. While the book could have used more judicious editing, the major takeaway here is about co-optation of diversity initiatives. This insidious behavior infects many companies and institutions of higher learning, partially because it is often done in the name of "DEI." This carefully researched book details the ongoing saga of co-optation at the University of Michigan, but the lessons apply to many different institutions. "Diversity" is often more convenient and aligned with maintaining classist infrastructures than "inclusion", and Johnson chronicles the history of how such programs develop and undermine actual justice for those who fight for it the most. Racial retrenchment is sustained by propaganda and programs that masquerade as restorative of justice. Johnson's epilogue is prescient:

"As I write the final words of this book, anti-affirmative action cases against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill make the urgency for disruptive change even more pressing. It's possible that the Supreme Court will ban affirmative action in all American universities, public and private, in the next five years. It's a sobering thought. It's even more sobering when you consider that affirmative action in higher education has been a tool of co-optation that preserved the institutional values that continued to privilege white middle-and upper-class students. If anti-affirmative action forces put this much effort into challenging practices that preserve racial disparities, imagine the forces that will coalesce to resist efforts to disrupt institutional values and create a truly fair and equitable system."

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