Did Affirmative Action Work? | Do we need more Affirmative Action?
Posted by Ken C on January 22, 2026, 11:15 pm
Are there any other better ways to help blacks?
I like how this video includes statistics and facts to back up their opinions.
Transcript:
Before Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell was for Affirmative Action, he was against it.
This is noteworthy because Bell is best known for his contributions to critical race theory—which claims that racism is embedded in American institutions and that the historical mistreatment of black people largely explains current disparities.
In a 1970 law-review article, Bell objected to using different criteria to assess student performance depending on race. In the past, he noted, the small percentages of blacks admitted to selective law schools “not only met the usual academic criteria, but were often characterized by a strong inner drive to equal and, if at all possible, excel their white classmates.”
Admitting blacks who did not meet accepted standards was, in Bell’s words, “a form of benevolent paternalism.”
He warned that racial preferences risked tainting the accomplishments of those who succeeded—in the eyes of whites and blacks alike. “Whatever arguments are used to justify such a policy,” he wrote, “there is little denying that it robs those black students who have done well of receiving real credit and the boost in confidence that their accomplishments merit.”
Although Bell later changed his mind, he offered a preview of a half-century of arguments that would be made against racial preferences. That might give pause to those who are inclined to dismiss criticism of affirmative action as racist.
Bell’s concerns about the psychological toll of affirmative action turned out to be prescient. More than five decades of racial preferences have created the impression that black advancement is impossible without them.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, that the Court’s ruling “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the majority had “detached itself from this country’s actual past and present experiences.”
This doom-saying assumes racial favoritism is a prerequisite for black accomplishment. Because it has been asserted for decades that affirmative action and government programs produced today’s black middle class, few bother to question the claim. But when we do, a very different narrative emerges.
During the first two-thirds of the 20th century—long before affirmative action and an expanded welfare state—black Americans experienced remarkable progress. Education gaps narrowed, incomes rose, poverty declined. This history is often ignored because activists and politicians prefer a narrative of suffering. Yet it should be a source of pride for blacks—and inspiration for other minorities.
In 1940, 25- to 29-year-old whites had 3.6 more years of schooling on average than blacks. By 1960 both groups had advanced, but blacks outpaced whites and the gap had narrowed by more than half, to 1.7 years.
Between 1940 and 1960, the percentage of blacks with a high school diploma more than tripled, again growing faster than whites. But as colleges began compromising admissions standards in the late 1960s, these trends slowed.
According to Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam and co-author Shaylyn Garrett, the “fastest and most dramatic progress toward parity [in education] between blacks and whites finishing high school was achieved before 1970.”
The same story can be told about income. More education meant better jobs and higher pay. And just as educational gains among blacks were speedier before affirmative action, so too were wage gains. Yet affirmative action policies were given far more credit than they deserved, mainly because proponents started the story in the middle.
In 1939, the annual median income was $350 for black males and $1,000 for white males. By 1960, those figures had reached $3,000 and $5,000, respectively—an increase of 570% for blacks vs. 360% for whites. All of this occurred before affirmative action and the civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s.
Between 1940 and 1970, the median annual income for black men rose from 40% to 60% of the white male median, a 20-point gain. Under the first 25 years of affirmative action, 1970–95, it grew only seven more points, to 67%. Among black women, the pre–affirmative-action gains were even more striking. Median earnings climbed from 36% of the white female median in 1940 to 73% by 1970, a 37-point gain. Between 1970 and 1995, however, black female pay rose by just 16 more points. Black earnings were clearly rising faster before affirmative action.
Central to the social-justice ideology behind affirmative action is the belief that disparities mainly result from discrimination, not from differences in skills, behavior, or culture. Accordingly, black advancement is said to depend on policies that counter antiblack bias with antiwhite bias. Yet the phenomenal rise of blacks in the first two-thirds of the 20th century, despite centuries of mistreatment, strongly rebukes such claims.
History shows that black people made greater strides under colorblind policies than under affirmative action.
Derrick Bell had it right the first time.
I’m Jason Riley, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and author of The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed, for Prager University.
I get these notices from credit card companies all the time offering to lend me money for 18-24 months for a one-time up-front fee of 3-5% which is added to the total loan amount. It works out that the true interest rate is 2.33% to 2.5%. If you pay it according to terms, you can then renew it for another period.
This might work for some of the slackers if they haven't already ruined their credit rating by being a slacker.
In school I was told "Two wrongs don't make a right",
but then they told me we need "reverse discrimination" to make up for past discrimination.
I think we need to spend more on education, but we should focus on good educations that help people get good paying jobs.
Also, a four year college degree is not right for everyone. We should help more kids learn good trades that help them get the good jobs.
Too many Americans have too much debt. Schools should teach more financial planning.
Too many Americans are overweight. Schools should encourage kids to exercise more.
The video does not mention the poor. Blacks still have a lower average income than whites. We could help them by helping all the poor, no matter what color they are.
