Misconception #1: Past inequalities in access and opportunities that racial and ethnic minority groups have suffered have been sufficiently addressed and no longer require attention.

William Trent, in his chapter titled "Justice, Equality of Educational Opportunity, and Affirmative Action", places affirmative action policies in an historical context by examining past and current inequities in access and opportunities for different racial and ethnic groups. Using a social indicators approach and the metaphor of the education pipeline, the chapter examines this evidence in the areas of K-12 schooling, employment, and access to higher education. The evidence presented by Trent pointedly addresses the fact that race is and always has been one of the most important and salient markers of social distinctions. Therefore, to disregard race or to develop a colorblind approach to societal interpretation is to disregard reality. The social psychological theories of fairness put forth in a subsequent chapter (by Levin) build upon the documentation described in this chapter.

Among the major conclusions provided by Trent are the following:

• Low-income and minority children in the United States have significantly poorer access to quality schooling experiences. As history has demonstrated, aggressive anti-discrimination and desegregation policies alone cannot create equal opportunity for all racial and ethnic groups.

• Although there are many poor white and Asian students, children who live and attend schools in concentrated pockets of poverty are almost exclusively Black, Hispanic, and Native American. Schools that are populated by almost exclusively low-income children tend to have fewer resources, less-prepared teachers, fewer college-preparation courses, and other conditions that negatively affect student learning than do schools populated by students with a diversity of income levels.

• Recent studies have demonstrated that ability grouping and tracking practices result in the disproportionate (and often inappropriate) placement of racial and ethnic minority students in the lowest groups. These long-standing practices have had a significantly negative effect on these students’ opportunity to learn.

• Interventions at the national, state, and campus levels that address under-representation and success of minority groups in higher education have made some progress on improving access and retention of miority students, but much remains to be done. Contrary to popular perception, interventions such as Head Start, the TRIO programs, and campus-based support service programs for low-income and minority students, are neither massive nor ubiquitous. Therefore, it is unrealistic to rely on these programs alone to remedy the racial and ethnic inequalities in access and opportunity that persist in this country.

• Group membership characteristics continue to determine an individual’s experiences and access to opportunities in many ways that have important consequences for academic performance. Whites as a group have historically been afforded many privileges, ranging from explicit affirmative action to informal networks, through which many opportunities are gained. These often unacknowledged privileges, many of which persist today, have resulted in great disadvantages to many minority groups.