“How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay.
In the first systematic study of what college applicants invoke when required to submit a diversity essay, we revisit many settled assumptions on both the left and the right about how such an essay would operate after Grutier and Gratz as well as after the passage of anti-affirmative action ballot i...
| Published in: | Law & Society Review Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 103 - 139 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
March 2011
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=510994038&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 510994038 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00239216 LSR jtl: Law & Society Review issn: 00239216 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: March 2011 vid: 45 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 510994038 ppf: 103 ppct: 36 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 15.2MB tig: atl: “How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay. aug: au: Kirkland, Anna Hansen, Ben B. su: University of Michigan University & college admission Essays Racial differences Content analysis Multiculturalism sug: subj: University of Michigan University & college admission Essays Racial differences Content analysis Multiculturalism keyword: Race differences ab: In the first systematic study of what college applicants invoke when required to submit a diversity essay, we revisit many settled assumptions on both the left and the right about how such an essay would operate after Grutier and Gratz as well as after the passage of anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives. Our data are a sample of 176 diversity essays submitted to the University of Michigan in the immediate aftermath of the University's Supreme Court win, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with special attention to the differences that the essay writer's race and class position make. We find that in many respects the essays are similar when written by applicants from similar backgrounds but different races, and that conservative critics were wrong to assume the essay would function simply as a way of announcing oneself as an under-the-table affirmative action candidate. Rather than suggesting a straightforward lineup of advantage and disadvantage, we suggest rather that the essay is a vehicle for the youngest generation of citizens to both receive and send back a new conception of difference that has some essentializing elements but overall is turning in a postracial, cosmopolitan direction. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|