Color and Money: How Rich White Kids Are Winning the War over College Affirmative Action

What is the real story behind the fight over affirmative action in college admissions? Veteran journalist Peter Schmidt reveals truths that will outrage readers and forever transform the debate.

His book exposes the hidden agendas of all sides, revealing how:

* The conservative opposition to affirmative action preaches equality in college admissions, yet guts programs that help poor kids get in the running.

* The higher education establishment feeds lies to the federal courts and the public about the benefits of affirmative action, and attempts to squelch any talk about how selective colleges' favoritism toward the privileged undermines professed commitments to diversity.

* Affirmative action has evolved from a means of bringing about social justice into a tool colleges cynically use to sell themselves and attract corporate support.

* Lower and middle class students of all races are being lost in the affirmative action struggle.

The underlying premise is that affirmative action is a band aid used to hide a very deep wound that neither side of the debate has much interest in treating any time soon. The real winners in the war over college affirmative action are rich white kids, whose spot on the inside track is secure no matter which side comes out on top. The real losers are African- American, Hispanic, and Asian-American kids, who continue to have the deck stacked against them, and those worthy white kids who lack cash and connections and find their futures sacrificed by colleges for "diversity" and the almighty dollar.

Unafraid to shine a harsh light on schools such as Harvard, the University of Michigan, Princeton, and the University of California, this is a startling and brave book that will inspire a national dialogue on class, race, and education.

PETER SCHMIDT is a Senior Writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he covers affirmative action, state and federal higher-education policy, education research, and historically black colleges and universities. He previously covered school desegregation, urban education, and immigrant education for Education Week, and he has written for the Associated Press, the Detroit Free Press, the Weekly Standard, and Teacher Magazine. His work has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Education Writers Association, the Virginia Press Association, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. His coverage of affirmative action won a special citation for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association in 2006.