Orlando Patterson

About the author: Orlando Patterson is a professor of sociology at Harvard and the author of The Ordeal of Integration.

Affirmative action is intended to expose African Americans to vital social networks that are critical to advancement. One problem with affirmative action, however, is that its beneficiaries tend to segregate themselves from whites. Black college students, for example, have a tendency to reside in all black student halls, and attend all black social events. Affirmative action should be reformed to better facilitate the program's original goal of fully integrating blacks into American society.

At one extreme, affirmative action is seen as a legally sanctioned remedy for past and present racial discrimination. At the other extreme, it is seen as a violation of the principle of fairness and especially of a "colorblind" society. Between these two extremes...