The greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action plans have been women, who make up more than half of the population. What affirmative action has done has been to force universities and employers to open up the pool of people they are going to admit, hire, promote or give contracts to so that everyone, not just white males, has a shot. A critical ruling involving affirmative action in higher education came in the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The court found that the pursuit of diversity in higher education is a compelling state interest and that institutions of higher learning must be able to prepare students to thrive in an increasingly diverse environment. There is no question that affirmative action policies such as these have caused hurt feelings, mainly among white males who feel that they are no longer playing on a level field.
Affirmative action continues to come under attack both politically and in the courts.
One of the latest moves against it comes in a case brought by three white applicants to the University of Michigan who claim that the university unconstitutionally uses race as a factor in admissions to the undergraduate College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and to the university's law school. The law school case is scheduled to go to trial in January. Meanwhile, a remarkable event occurred this week that is going to heighten the importance of the Michigan case. All of the companies recruit at Michigan or similar institutions. All are global enterprises and have an enormous stake in having a diversified workforce that can do business around the world.