{"product_id":"the-making-of-reverse-discrimination-ellen-messer-davidow-9780700632206","title":"The Making of Reverse Discrimination: How Defunis and Bakke Bleached Racism from Equal Protection","description":"In \u003ci\u003eThe Making of Reverse Discrimination\u003c\/i\u003e Ellen Messer-Davidow offers a fresh and incisive analysis of the legal-judicial discourse of \u003ci\u003eDeFunis v. Odegaard\u003c\/i\u003e (1974) and \u003ci\u003eRegents of the University of California v. Bakke\u003c\/i\u003e (1978), the first two cases challenging race-conscious admissions to professional schools to reach the US Supreme Court. While the voluminous literature on \u003ci\u003eDeFunis\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBakke\u003c\/i\u003e has focused on the Supreme Court's far from definitive answers to important constitutional questions, Messer-Davidow closely examines each case from beginning to end. She investigates the social surrounds where the cases incubated, their tours through the courts, and their aftereffects. Her analysis shows how lawyers and judges used the mechanisms of language and law to narrow the conflict to a single white male applicant and a single white-dominated university program to dismiss the historical, sociological, statistical, and experiential facts of \"systemic racism\" and thereby to assemble \"reverse discrimination\" as a new object of legal analysis. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn exposing the discursive mechanisms that marginalized the interests of applicants and communities of color, Messer-Davidow demonstrates that the construction of facts, the reasoning by precedent, and the invocation of constitutional principles deserve more scrutiny than they have received in the scholarly literature. Although facts, precedents, and principles are said to bring stability and equity to the law, Messer-Davidow argues that the white-centered narratives of \u003ci\u003eDeFunis\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBakke\u003c\/i\u003e not only bleached the color from equal protection but also served as the template for the dozens of anti-affirmative action projects--lawsuits, voter referenda, executive orders--that conservative movement organizations mounted in the following years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ellen Messer-Davidow\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0700632204\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780700632206\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Kansas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/14\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 392\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2022","brand":"Ellen Messer-Davidow","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44616777236735,"sku":"9780700632206","price":79.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_f0e5c0d6-ab87-4a5a-a331-9ee6c4a1a3e9.jpg?v=1703022259","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-making-of-reverse-discrimination-ellen-messer-davidow-9780700632206","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}