Guinier at IUK's EMA: no to quotas, 'testocracy'

By Mary King and Kay Rogers

Lani Guinier, the University of Pennsylvania law professor who was dubbed a "quota queen" following her 1993 failed nomination for assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, recently told an Indiana University Kokomo audience that, in fact, she does not support quotas at all.

In a Sept. 12 keynote address at IU Kokomo's sixth annual conference on "Enhancing Minority Attainment," Guinier hastened to add that she also opposes the current system of "testocracy, which attempts to assign a numerical value to human beings" based upon their performance on written examinations.

Although it is widely assumed that tests such as the SAT are effective because they "treat everyone the same," Guinier said such exams tend to reward those who think quickly and are willing to make strategic guesses but are unfairly biased against those who are given to slower but more thoughtful and analytical responses.

A system that relies on test results as a predictor of who will do best in colleges and universities -- or in the workplace -- is a system that is inherently flawed, Guinier argued, because it fails to take into account a key factor in success, that is, motivation.

Calling affirmative action "a policy of exceptionalism" that attempts to correct a flawed system of meritocracy, Guinier called for society to rethink its notions about merit and to view diversity in terms of function.

Guinier defined functional merit as "what it is we really want people to do" and diversity as a form of functional merit that focuses on "bringing different people into the workplace so that we come up with innovative and different ways of doing the job -- and sometimes results in doing the job better."

IUK Chancellor Emita Hill welcomed the approximately 250 conference participants, who came from more than a dozen states from California to Pennsylvania and Michigan to Mississippi. Susan Hannah, acting vice chancellor, introduced the speaker, noting that Guinier's experience in having had her name put into nomination by the president only to see it withdrawn after it stirred national controversy is evidence that "the American dream can just as easily become the American nightmare for any of us. Complex ideas get compressed into sound bytes; lifetime-won reputations are destroyed by clever slogans; old friends become new adversaries."

As has become the tradition, this year's conference featured a stellar lineup of guest speakers and panel discussions on subjects such as "Security Dads," "Refocusing the Curriculum on Diversity or Racism: As American as Apple Pie," and "The Impact of Worker Dislocation on Marginalized Populations."

Other speakers at the IUK conference included Judy O'Bannon, chair of the Indiana Main Street Council; David Barclay, Hughes Electronics Corporation's corporate vice president, workforce diversity; Troy Duster, director for the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California at Berkeley; and Richard Womack, director of the AFL-CIO's Department of Civil Rights.

Womack's address was a call for renewed commitment to civil rights. "We can deny discrimination until the year 3,000," Womack declared, "but it will do no good. It still exists."

Referring to a myth as "a lie that is told so often people begin to believe it's a truth," the labor leader said the country needs a public education program to explode prevalent myths that surround affirmative action. These myths, he said, promote the notions that affirmative action is based on quotas and preferences; that highly unqualified individuals receive promotions; that employers are limited in their ability to hire based on qualifications; and that affirmative action hurts white males.

"Overall, this was the most successful conference we've had," said IUK's Continuing Studies Director Donald Lane, who, with his staff, coordinated the event.

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