In this expansion of a special issue of the Berkeley-based journal Representations, editors Post and Rogin (law and political science at Berkeley, respectively) chronicle the assault on race-based affirmative action that began with the July 1995 decision of the Board of Regents of the University of California to prohibit the use of race as a criterion for student admissions. By canvassing nearly 30 leading scholars and intellectuals nationwide, the editors have amassed a collection of essays that both document and humanize that decision and others regarding affirmative action. Two important themes emerge: that affirmative action was focused on creating a fully integrated society by applying remedial measures aimed at offsetting the underrepresentation of women and minorities in universities and other positions of power and that diversity was not an end in itself but simply a means for granting equal opportunity to every American citizen. The result is heavy reading, intended for a scholarly audience.?
——Philip Young Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Lib., New York

An exploration of one of the most debated—and divisive—issues in American society today.Why has affirmative action become the lightning rod for conflicts over racial inequality in the United States? Have color-blind legal and political doctrines intensified or ameliorated America's racial divisions? Race and Representation invites the reader to enter a debate on a matter of the greatest moment for American universities, politics, and public life. Focusing on the politically driven decision of California's governor and the Board of Regents of the University of California to end affirmative action at the university, the subsequent enactment of an amendment to the California Constitution prohibiting the state from engaging in affirmative action, and court decisions in Texas that used the federal Constitution to prohibit affirmative action at state universities, the contributors to this volume incisively assess the current state of the tumultuous controversy over affirmative action.

Robert Post is the Alexander F. and Mary T. Morrison Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley. Michael Rogin is the Robson Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley.