John Carson.The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750–1940.:The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750–1940

Abstract

Among the several battles currently being waged in America's so-called “culture wars,” none is more divisive than the conflict over affirmative action. Proponents of affirmative action argue that in the interests of diversity institutions such as colleges and universities can make allowances for racial minorities when it comes to admissions. These advocates of preferential selection contend that there are ways of determining a candidate's overall merit other than relying simply on grade averages and standard test scores. The mere presence of minority students, so this argument goes, can enrich campus life and thus calls for a different way of understanding personal merit. Opponents of affirmative action disagree, contending that merit and talent should be based chiefly on past academic performance and inherent skills. Grades and the results of tests such as the SAT and LSAT, they argue, do in fact measure intelligence. Efforts to achieve equality of opportunity, affirmative action's opponents maintain, run the risk of mistaking it for equality of outcome. In the words of President Andrew Jackson: “Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions.”