A Debate on Affirmative Action

I am not one of the old circle of acquaintances who write knowingly to each other and to a receptive audience in the pages of Dissent; yet I have read virtually every issue since a fellow graduate student who was then on your editorial board brought the first issue to my attention 20 years ago. Although I was trained as a political scientist, much of my truly political thinking has been shaped by the critical analyses offered in this journal; indeed, I have more than once said that Irving Howe has been the most influential writer affecting my political orientation. Of course, one has not always agreed with everything appearing in Dissent or written by Howe (I continue to believe that T. E. Lawrence was a liar and blackg...