Undermining Racial Justice: How One University Embraced Inclusion and Inequality

by Matthew Johnson

Over the last sixty years, administrators on US college campuses have responded to black campus activists by making racial inclusion and inequality compatible.

This bold argument is at the center of Matthew Johnson's powerful and controversial book. Focusing on the University of Michigan, often a key talking point in national debates over racial justice thanks to the controversial Gratz v. Bollinger decided by the Supreme Court in 2003, Johnson argues that UM leaders incorporated black student dissent selectively into the institution's policies, practices, and values. This strategy was used in order to prevent activism from disrupting the institutional priorities that campus leaders deemed more important than racial justice. Despite knowing that racial disparities would likely continue, Johnson demonstrates that these administrators improbably saw themselves as champions of racial equity.

What Johnson contends in Undermining Racial Justice, isn't that good intentions resulted in unforeseen negative consequences, but that the people who created and maintained racial disparities at premier institutions of higher education across the United States firmly believed they had good intentions in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. The case of the University of Michigan fits into a broader pattern at elite institutions of higher education and is a cautionary tale for all in higher education. Inclusion has always been a secondary priority and, as a result, the policies of the late 1970s and 1980s ushered in a new and enduring era of racial retrenchment on campuses across the United States.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Education, Social Justice

336 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Matthew 2^ Johnson: GR Author, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic Realism
Matthew 3^ Johnson: GR Author, Fantasy
Matthew 4^ Johnson: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories
Matthew 5^ Johnson: Organic Life
Matthew 6^ Johnson: Biography for Children, History

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book in 2020 and have read it in fits and starts since then, but truly I cannot imagine a better book to have returned to in the last few weeks as the Supreme Court erodes justice. While the book could have used more judicious editing, the major takeaway here is about co-optation of diversity initiatives. This insidious behavior infects many companies and institutions of higher learning, partially because it is often done in the name of "DEI." This carefully researched book details the ongoing saga of co-optation at the University of Michigan, but the lessons apply to many different institutions. "Diversity" is often more convenient and aligned with maintaining classist infrastructures than "inclusion", and Johnson chronicles the history of how such programs develop and undermine actual justice for those who fight for it the most. Racial retrenchment is sustained by propaganda and programs that masquerade as restorative of justice. Johnson's epilogue is prescient:

As I write the final words of this book, anti-affirmative action cases against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill make the urgency for disruptive change even more pressing. It's possible that the Supreme Court will ban affirmative action in all American universities, public and private, in the next five years. It's a sobering thought. It's even more sobering when you consider that affirmative action in higher education has been a tool of co-optation that preserved the institutional values that continued to privilege white middle-and upper-class students. If anti-affirmative action forces put this much effort into challenging practices that preserve racial disparities, imagine the forces that will coalesce to resist efforts to disrupt institutional values and create a truly fair and equitable system."

[David Fulmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents a thorough history of racial inclusion and inequality at the University of Michigan. Stretching back to the 1800s the book chronicles a variety of racial issues at the university including admissions policies, the alienating climate on campus for minorities, protest movements, and administrative priorities. The thesis of the book - it is very academic, and not a popular history - is that the university’s leaders prioritized status, in particular an academically elite status, over other possible priorities such as racial equality, racial justice, and inclusion. The author spent years in the archive digging through old memos, letters, and speeches to carefully construct this argument, and the book does present a portrait of the inner-workings of a large bureaucracy confronted by various protests, government mandates, constitutional amendments, and even the odd proclivity of leaders and administrators. The result is a panoramic portrait of race and status in one large midwestern university spanning over a century.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent history of U-M's administrational/institutional failures to meaningfully act for racial justice, coopting disruptive racial justice in order to implement softer "diversity" initiatives. While the case study is U-M, the critiques are broadly relevant to all elite U.S. institutions that pursue status over ending systemic inequality.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for anyone connected to higher education

[Sam T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really insightful and detailed look at UM's relationship with racial justice; especially interesting parts on UM leadership's adoption of diversity language and their affirmative action policies