December 15, 2006

The Limits of Identity Politics

By DALTON CONLEY

Michaels questions the ability of a program in African-American studies to recruit black students (or faculty members). Marketing to undergraduates may indeed be a new rationale behind the creation of such programs at Princeton and elsewhere. However, there were — and still remain — at least two rationales for ethnic-studies programs in general and African-American-studies programs in particular. The first is that the African-American (or Asian or Latino) experience is