AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: What does the American Anthropological Association have to say about the concept of race? What new "diversity" policy did the instructor and economist Walter E. Williams suggest for grading?

What is the difference between strong and weak forms of affirmative action (race and gender-based preparatory and developmental programs vs. preferential treatment)? What is problematic about compensatory justifications of racial preferences and concepts of racial privilege and racial guilt? What is "economic" affirmative action and how might it solve the problems affirmative action is intended to solve without the unintended negative side-effects?

What was at issue in Frank Ricci's lawsuit against the City of New Haven, Connecticut (the Supreme Court case of Ricci v. DeStefano) described in George Will's article on "The Racial Spoils System"?

Why does Thomas Sowell call Affirmative Action for blacks a "grand fraud"? What are his arguments against it? When official race-based preferences were ended in the University of California system with the passage of the CCRI (California Civil Rights Initiative) in 1996, what was the results for African-American students? What does he say about the claim that a certain "critical mass" of minorities is necessary for minority students to do well? What does he say about the argument that we need racial preferences because young minorities need role models?

What special problems to Asian students encounter with Affirmative Action? What changes are being proposed for the admissions process at Harvard? How did liberal Democrat sociologist John McWhorter find himself defending Justice Scalia on Affirmative Action? What does he think is behind the education gap between blacks and whites?

Which groups are targeted for special treatment by affirmative action? Which groups are not?  In general, what do affirmative action laws say must be done in college admissions, employment and the awarding of government contracts? How are they different from mere anti-discrimination laws? Who is subject to these laws? (all government agencies? all private businesses? both? only certain government agencies or particular kinds of companies?) What are some examples of actions required by government agencies, businesses and schools to meet affirmative action requirements? What is a meritocracy?

What unintended consequences did LBJ's "Great Society" programs have?

If you account for the higher single parenthood rate and the fact that more blacks live in the South, where wages (but also cost of living) are lower, what happens to the disparities between the wages of blacks and whites? What are some harmful effects of Affirmative Action policies?

DIVERSITY AND ACADEMIC BIAS: What arguments in favor of "rethinking diversity" does the instructor give in his article? What does he mean when he discusses diversity's "Balkanizing influence"? How does he argue that an inordinate focus on racial or ethnic identity and past discrimination divide people rather than bring them together? What notion of diversity does he support?

What does "Diversity" mean when used by LCC or other educational institutions or by government or industry? Does it mean skin color or national origin, or does it mean diversity of opinion and point of view? What are problems associated with a racially, ethnically and culturally mixed society? Besides making people race-conscious and aware of past and present discrimination against various groups, what other approach did the instructor suggest may in the long run prove more successful?

What is the general political makeup of academia? What are some examples of academic bias cited by David Horowitz? What reasons does Horowitz give for believing that the present practices in academia are an offense to the spirit of free inquiry and violate the Constitution? What does the National Association of Scholars have to say about issues of race class and gender and the inclusion of non-Western work and work by minorities and women in campus curriculum? How does Peter Schwartz argue that the concept of diversity is itself a racist notion? What is the controversy over Whiteness History Month at Portland Community College. What is the concept of "whiteness" in academia?