This week, John and I sit down with Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley on the show to discuss his new book, The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed. For many years, Jason has been both a tenacious critic of affirmative action and a fervent believer in the capacity of black people to succeed and prosper on their own merits. In a post-Students for Fair Admissions world, he’s got the wind at his back. But relying on the Supreme Court’s decision to render the end of affirmative action a fait accompli isn’t enough. We need to understand why it was not only a discriminatory practice but a counterproductive one.
Jason is more than up to the task. He explains why the myth of affirmative action’s necessity is belied by the historical record. He argues that the gains made before the advent of affirmative action demonstrate that African Americans are fully capable of excelling without it, and arguments that it’s responsible for substantive gains rely on skewed data. Jason believes that the Supreme Court’s revocation of race-based affirmative action demonstrates that ideas like reparations and figures like Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ibram X. Kendi are falling out of favor. I certainly hope he’s right.
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0:00 Intro
1:00 What is the “affirmative action myth”?
8:02 Black progress before and after affirmative action
11:41 Ground News ad
13:29 How far does Jason’s critique of affirmative action extend?
17:03 Contesting The Shape of the River
26:37 Respectability, responsibility, and upward mobility
32:40 Is Jason blaming the victims?
35:54 Jason: No one’s buying the reparations argument
43:26 How do figures like Ibram X. Kendi and Nikole Hannah-Jones end up at the center of progressive discourse?
Recorded May 7, 2025
Links and Readings
Jason’s new book, The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed
Jason’s book, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
Jason’s book, False Black Power
Jason’s book, Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell
Derek Bok and William G. Bowen’s book, The Shape of the River: Long Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions
Melissa Kearney’s book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind
An Amos & Andy YouTube playlist
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Atlantic essay, “The Case for Reparations”
Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Antiracist
The Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites Project
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