Affirmative Action and Black Student Success: The Pursuit of a “Critical Mass” at Historically White Universities

David J. Luke’s Affirmative Action and Black Student Success is a concrete and comprehensive exploration into diversity programs on college campuses and their impact on Black student success and outcomes. Viewed over the span of 12 years, three large, public universities in the United States and Canada provide dynamic settings for this book’s comparative focus on diversity initiatives.

The author identifies key regional and national differences between these settings, as well as differences in the way diversity is framed and understood to illustrate how diversity programs and policies are shaped and the extent and ways in which these programs and policies then shape student experiences and outcomes. The values and meanings organizations ascribe to diversity, inclusion, and equity are frequently in transition, and the book’s compelling analysis conveys the importance of race in these contexts—when racism is presumed to be in decline, as is the case in colorblindness and demonstrations of multiculturalist ideals, racial inequalities are concealed and remain unnoticed. The author makes a range of practical recommendations and argues that clear and explicit goals about race and representation are integral in the expansion and preservation of inclusive institutional environments.

Unflinching in its critique and pragmatic with its recommendations, this book offers invaluable analysis for university leaders, diversity officers, and student affairs professionals, as much as it provides new insights for scholars and educators of racism, higher education, diversity, and organizational culture.