{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.018937080024434942, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0036652412950519244, 'mean_word_length': 4.892086330935252, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
African Americans: The Face of Affirmative Action

PICTURED ON THE COVER of the January 27, 2003 issue of Newsweek was a handsome young black man dressed in a crisp IBMesque navy blue shirt and power red tie strategically fitted at the base of his leather belt. Clean-shaven, designer eyewear and khaki pants present his image as the poster child for middle-class black America-striving, upwardly mobile and assimilationist. Coupled with this black male image which represented a tolerant and progressive America, the Newsweek headline read: "Do We Still Need Affirmative Action?" The question and this image became a permanent fixture in my gallery of thoughts for weeks. The black man on the cover resembled a myriad of young men that I had the privilege of studying with at Morehouse College, intelligent men who came from both working and middle-class homes, and both poor and selective schools. However, a well-groomed African American does not alone represent the beneficiaries of affirmative action. Black faces proliferate the airwaves of prime time media shows and are displayed on the covers of magazines and newspaper articles. Is it not critical to also consider how white women and non-blacks benefit from affirmative action policy? African America has been situated at the center of this conservative affirmative action debate in such a way that black intelligence and black ability continues to be imprisoned in a racist box of doubt and inferiority. This focus on African Americans (no longer the largest minority ethnic group in the U.S.) and the indifference paid to advantages gained by white women and other underrep-