Harvard Law Professor Discusses Challenges to African American Advancement in the US

Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy, in a guest essay for The New York Times titled “The Truth Is, Many Americans Just Don’t Want Black People to Get Ahead,” discusses the challenges faced by efforts to promote African American advancement and address racial disparities. Kennedy highlights the history of criticisms of “reverse discrimination” and “preference” in response to such efforts. He notes that opponents of affirmative action policies have not publicly disputed preexisting preferences for whites, but this does not prove that their opposition is or was based on racial bias. Kennedy suggests that the Supreme Court should consider the possibility of “malign resentment at the sight of Black people getting ahead” as a reason why supporters of small government now favor an “absolutist, judicially imposed command when it comes to affirmative action,” but it may be more appropriate to focus on the arguments’ merits rather than likening opponents of affirmative action to segregationists. While Kennedy’s discussion of history is valuable, it is important to avoid committing the hypocrisy fallacy and to consider the issue at hand on its own merits.