The “Reverse Discrimination Sentiment”

The Chronicle of Higher Education April 5, 2011, 5:33 pm By Richard Kahlenberg As Peter Schmidt reported in The Chronicle, new research to be presented at the American Educational Research Association next week finds that Americans “see minority students as having much greater advantages in seeking access to college than is actually the case.” The findings appear to suggest that the existence of affirmative action at highly selective institution generates a general (and factually incorrect) sense among whites that minority students are actually more likely to have access to college generally. The findings come from a paper entitled, “The Blind Side: Americans’ Perceptions of Inequalities in College Access,” authored by Indiana University sociology professor Brian Powell and doctoral students Kristin M. Jordan and Oren Pizmony-Levy. The authors, using data from a 2007 survey by Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, find, as reported by Schmidt, that “nearly a fourth of respondents said qualified students who are racial and ethnicity minorities have more opportunity to attend college than others. Just under a fifth said students from low-income families have an advantage over others, and about a tenth said qualified students from middle-class families are better off than others when it comes to college access.” Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-%e2%80%9creverse-discrimination-sentiment%e2%80%9d/29153?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en