Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby by Stephen L. Carter
"Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby" is a thought-provoking examination by Stephen L. Carter that delves into the complexities of affirmative action from the perspective of a beneficiary. Published in 1991, Carter navigates his personal journey as a middle-class Black professional who gained access to prestigious academic and professional opportunities through affirmative action policies. He grapples with the inherent contradictions of these policies, acknowledging the benefits he received while also reflecting on the potential stigma attached to being labeled an "affirmative action baby."
Carter expresses a critical view of affirmative action, suggesting it has predominantly favored those within the middle class rather than addressing the needs of the more disadvantaged. He advocates for a reevaluation of these policies to better serve those who are truly in need of support. Throughout his reflections, he emphasizes the importance of individual identity over labels, resisting categorization based on race or political affiliation. Ultimately, Carter presents a nuanced perspective that encourages a deeper understanding of both affirmative action and the diverse experiences of those it affects.
Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby by Stephen L. Carter
First published: 1991
The Work
The publication of Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby in 1991 announced the arrival of Stephen Carter as a key figure in a new generation of African American intellectuals. In this book, as in his other publications, Carter uses the example of his life to reflect upon the contradictions inherent in preferential college admission and hiring policies. These contradictions, according to Carter, have allowed him and other middle-class black professionals to enter prestigious universities and assume significant professional positions but they have also branded the recipients of these opportunities as inferior. In reflecting on the privileges he has received as an affirmative action baby—at the expense of others whose skin color and socioeconomic status do not provide them with those benefits—he contemplates not only his own life experience but also affirmative action in general.
Critical of affirmative action policies, Carter nevertheless acknowledges that his admission to Yale law school was the result of affirmative action policies. Thus he states that he embraces the term “affirmative action babies,” recognizing that it describes him and also provides him the opportunity to examine affirmative action from his experience as a direct beneficiary of its policies. His examination leads him to conclude that only middle-class blacks have benefited from affirmative action and that the ideal situation would be for affirmative action to be eliminated or radically modified to help those who are more genuinely socially and economically disadvantaged.
He communicates his reflections with thoughtfulness and skepticism. Although he acknowledges himself to be a black intellectual, Carter also objects to labels—including that of “black” and “intellectual”—that put people into boxes. Thus a persistent theme in his book is his resistance to categorizing anyone, including himself. He clearly relishes the inability of his would-be critics to label him, saying that he takes pleasure in the eclecticism of his political views, thus challenging others to stuff him “into an intellectual stifling little box with a label on the front that reads conservative’ or neoconservative’ or anything of the like.”
Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby is therefore the reflections of an individual whose identity may have been influenced by affirmative action policies but whose sense of self is, finally, self-created. Stephen Carter is who he is, not what affirmative action or labelers think he is.
Sources for Further Study
ABA Journal. LXXVII, September, 1991, p. 94.
Carter, Stephen. “Choice Interviews: Stephen Carter.” Interview by T. Farish. Choice 31 (June, 1994): 1533-1534.
Chicago Tribune. September 1, 1991, XIV, p. 3.
The Christian Science Monitor. September 10, 1991, p. 13.
Ebony. XLVI, October, 1991, p. 18.
Los Angeles Times. September 11, 1991, p. E3.
The Nation. CCLIII, November 18, 1991, p. 632.
National Review. XLIII, October 7, 1991, p. 38.
The New York Review of Books. XXXVIII, October 24, 1991, p. 14.
The New York Times Book Review. XCVI, September 1, 1991, p. 1.
Publishers Weekly. CCXXXVIII, July 5, 1991, p. 51.
The Washington Post Book World. XXI, September 8, 1991, p. 4.