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Author’s Note: I began writing the book that became Diversity: The Invention of a Concept in January 2002, in anticipation that the United States Supreme Court would soon take up the Constitutional question whether the pursuit of diversity provides a legitimate exception to the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. This essay sets the stage for this by examining how the idea of human diversity gained the coloring of a would-be Constitutional principle in American life. The Court indeed took up the issue when, in December 2002, it agreed to review the twin cases of Grutter v. Bolinger and Gratz v. Bolinger. Both involved claims by white students that they had been denied admission to the University of Michigan because of its diversity-based admissions preferences for some kinds of minority students. The case is currently pending.
Peter wood is associate professor of anthropology at Boston University. He has written frequently on American culture. “Diversity in America” is adapted from his book, Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, Encounter Books, 2003.
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Wood, P. Diversity in America. Soc 40, 60–68 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-003-1019-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-003-1019-7