Why Society Needs Dissent

Equality
In the United States, prejudice and unfairness has always been a problem for the minority groups. People of color have been dehumanized and treated like animals compared to the white man. This pattern of discrimination continued and affected people of color until 1961 when President John F. Kennedy introduced affirmative action. Sunstein’s goal is as he says himself in his book, “to connect an understanding of conformity and dissent to the current debate over the constitutional validity of those policies” (Sustein 194). After reading this chapter, my response is that the laws are there because they need to be there, and there should be a form of help for people of color to make up for the many years of cruel treatment and unfairness their ancestors have faced.
He asks, “Whether it is constitutionally legitimate for educational institutions to pursue their commitment to diversity through race-conscious affirmative action programs” (Sustein 196). He continues by giving his conclusion that it is legitimate only when racial diversity is used to promote the educational mission (Sustein 196). He explains that in specific situations some form of affirmative action should be permissible. Sunstein also talks about Justice Lewis Powell and when he approved of the idea of education being better if the school has diversity. He went into detail of how the court doesn’t consider discrimination done in the past to be a good reason to discriminate against white people. He also talks about race neutrality, racial mixing, and racial stereotyping, which all contribute to his goal. He ends the chapter by giving you something to think about. He says that since we are concerned about this issue then shouldn’t we also be concerned about issues in admissions and educational