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Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges
A powerful argument for a class-based approach to college admissions that “shows where we have gone wrong so far, and how we will get to justice, equality, and even diversity for real” (John McWhorter)
For decades America’s colleges and universities have been working to increase racial diversity. But they have been using the wrong approach, as Richard Kahlenberg persuasively shows in his highly personal and deeply researched book. Kahlenberg makes the definitive case that class disadvantage, rather than race, should be the determining factor for how a broader array of people “get in.”
While elite universities claim to be on the side of social justice, the dirty secret of higher education is that the perennial focus on racial diversity has provided cover for an admissions system that mostly benefits the wealthy and shuts out talented working-class students. By fixing the class bias in college admissions we can begin to rectify America’s skyrocketing economic inequality and class antagonism, giving more people a better place at the table as they move through life and more opportunity to “swim in the river of power.”
Kahlenberg has long worked with prominent civil rights leaders on housing and school integration. But his recognition of class inequality in American higher education led to his making a controversial decision to go over to the “other side” and provide research and testimony in cases that helped lead to the controversial Supreme Court decision of 2023 that ended racial preferences. That conservative ruling could, Kahlenberg shows, paradoxically have a progressive policy outcome by cutting a new path for economic and racial diversity alike – and greater fairness.
For decades America’s colleges and universities have been working to increase racial diversity. But they have been using the wrong approach, as Richard Kahlenberg persuasively shows in his highly personal and deeply researched book. Kahlenberg makes the definitive case that class disadvantage, rather than race, should be the determining factor for how a broader array of people “get in.”
While elite universities claim to be on the side of social justice, the dirty secret of higher education is that the perennial focus on racial diversity has provided cover for an admissions system that mostly benefits the wealthy and shuts out talented working-class students. By fixing the class bias in college admissions we can begin to rectify America’s skyrocketing economic inequality and class antagonism, giving more people a better place at the table as they move through life and more opportunity to “swim in the river of power.”
Kahlenberg has long worked with prominent civil rights leaders on housing and school integration. But his recognition of class inequality in American higher education led to his making a controversial decision to go over to the “other side” and provide research and testimony in cases that helped lead to the controversial Supreme Court decision of 2023 that ended racial preferences. That conservative ruling could, Kahlenberg shows, paradoxically have a progressive policy outcome by cutting a new path for economic and racial diversity alike – and greater fairness.
- GenresEducationNonfiction
384 pages, Hardcover
First published March 25, 2025
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149 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2025
There is no denying that groups of people have been blatantly discriminated against in our country and as a result of that discrimination many people have been held back in lower socioeconomic groups.
For years, universities have tried to address that by giving members of these groups an opportunity by admitting them into their programs. But, many times, they give opportunities to members of those groups who are in higher socioeconomic backgrounds, so does it really make a difference?
The books author makes an argument that when people universities admit children of large donors, alumni and employees, they tend to limit diversity. Thus his argument to give admission opportunities to top performers of HS, regardless of which school system they are in.
He does a solid job reviewing the history of the challenges and court cases surrounding the university affirmative action programs.
For me the book opened my eyes to the gravity of the problem and the fact that there are no easy answers.
For years, universities have tried to address that by giving members of these groups an opportunity by admitting them into their programs. But, many times, they give opportunities to members of those groups who are in higher socioeconomic backgrounds, so does it really make a difference?
The books author makes an argument that when people universities admit children of large donors, alumni and employees, they tend to limit diversity. Thus his argument to give admission opportunities to top performers of HS, regardless of which school system they are in.
He does a solid job reviewing the history of the challenges and court cases surrounding the university affirmative action programs.
For me the book opened my eyes to the gravity of the problem and the fact that there are no easy answers.
April 20, 2025
Excellent and compelling, if a tad self-congratulatory at times.
December 21, 2025
If I could have I would have given it a 3.5. Enlightening. I think the author is naive and unjustifiably optimistic.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews