Affirmative Action Is Dead; Long Live Affirmative Action. By
Faye J. Crosby. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. 352p. $30.00.
Through an informative professional literature review, Faye Crosby
intends to educate affirmative action critics and a skeptical public about
the real-life operation of and continuing need for a largely misunderstood
social policy. Her book's key question is “why does the policy
of affirmative action which appears reasonable to many social scientists
attract so much negative comment?” (p. 22). Despite confusion with
illegal quotas and with the Supreme Court's newly minted diversity
justification, Crosby is convinced that social science studies prove that
properly implemented affirmative action is largely beneficial and still
necessary to overcome overt or subtle in-group prejudice, discrimination,
and exclusion.