+ Blue-Collar Boomers Take
Work Ethic to College
+
Baby Boomers
 Considered
the generation after World War II
 More
babies were born in 1946 than ever before:
3.4 million, 20 percent more than in 1945.
 According
to the US Census, 77 million people
were born between 1946 and 1964, which is
defined as the baby boomer era
 At
that time, they made up almost 40 percent of
the nation’s population.
 The
first baby boomer turned 65 on January 1,
2011.
+
What caused the Baby
Boomers?
Young
males returning to the United
States, Canada, and Australia
following tours of duty overseas
during World War II began families,
which brought about a significant
number of new children into the US.
+ Where
they are today ?
 Today
the Boomers make up 26.1 percent of the nation’s
population
 As
they grew older, some baby boomers began to resist
this consumerist suburban ethos.

They began to fight instead for social, economic and
political equality and justice for many disadvantaged
groups: African-Americans, young people, women, gays
and lesbians, American Indians and Hispanics, for
example.
 Today's
Baby Boomers are between 40 and 62 years of
age.
 Unlike
the GI generation, who saved money and avoided
debts, the Boomers are facing vanishing pensions.
+
•
Discussion Question #1
What arguments is Libby Sander making
in this selection? What factors account for
the situation that she is describing? To
what extent re these older American
becoming students as matter of choice?
As a matter of necessity? As Sander
describes the situation, in what ways does
social class intersect with the values that
these students bring to school with them.
+
•
Discussion Question #2
As noted, this articles was written
before the economic downturn of
2008. How has the economic situation
in the United States changed since
that time Do you believe that these
changes have had any influence on
who is attending college or why?
What evidence might you offer for
your position?
+
•
Discussion Question #3
What sorts of evidence does Sander
present to support her claims? How
might her article might have been
different if she had relied only on,
let’s say, statistics? How would the
tone of the article, for examples, have
been different? (For discussion of
kinds of evidence, see Ch 4 on
logical appeals and Ch 17 on what
counts as Evidence.)
+
Discussion Question #4
•
How does the presence of older
Americans on campus change the
nature of college life? How might the
life presence experiences of people
like Russell Kearney, David Cox, and
Dannie Hill influence their behavior as
students? How might they influence the
nature of content of class discussion, for
example? What advantages might there
be to having a student population that it
not all of a single age cohort?
+
Videos
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXEqQ
gRxrZU
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmNji
8hzBY
+The Trouble With Diversity:
How We Learned to Love
Identity and Ignore Inequality
+
Diversity
 Capabilities
and Disabilities
 Socio-Economic
 Sexual
Backgrounds
Orientation
 Age
 Gender
 Race
 Religion
+ Diversity works in effort to change the culture of
an organization
 It
establishes a sense of identity
“At bottom every man knows well enough
that he is a unique being, only once on this earth;
and by no extraordinary chance will such a
marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity
as he is, ever be put together a second time.”
- Friedrich Nietsche
Affirmative
Action
+
 Originally
used in Executive Order No. 10295, when
John F. Kennedy signed the legal directives in 1961.
 It
initially stated that federal contractors are required to
“take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are
employed, and that employees are treated during
employment, without regard to their race, creed, color,
or national origin.”
 Rooted
 In
from discrimination-related issues
1978, the Supreme Court case, Regents of University
of California v. Bakke, ruled that the use of racial
“quotas” was unconstitutional. Hence, making
affirmative action constitutional
+
Regents of University of
California v. Bakke
 In
1978, the Supreme Court case, Regents of University of
California v. Bakke, ruled that the use of racial “quotas”
was unconstitutional. Hence, making affirmative action
constitutional
 The
case focused on the admission process of UC Davis’s
Medical School, and their inflexible admissions quota.
 After
being denied admissions twice, Allan Bakke, a white
applicant with notably higher MCAT scores and GPA than
the other admitted applicants, sued the university.
+
Wealth Inequality
 Also
known as the “wealth gap”
 In
2008, the nation’s economy tanked, which lead to a
great disparity between the rich and the poor
 Today, the
richest 1% own over 35% of the nations
wealth; leaving 65% of the nation’s wealth to be
distributed among the remaining 99%.
 As
the economy tripled, the middle-class slowly
disappeared.
+
Diversity vs. Affirmative
Action
Often
confused concepts
Both
deal with issues
related to discrimination
Affirmative
action and
diversity has distinct
objectives and origins,
but they are
complementary in
function.
+
Discussion Questions #1
•
What, for Walter Benn Michaels, is the
real issue that American society needs
to confront? How, for him, does defining
diversity in terms of a celebration of
difference , especially ethnic difference,
percent Americans form both seeing
the real issue and doing anything about
it? In what ways does our society’s focus
on ethnic and cultural diversity
necessarily perpetuate racism and
biological essentialism (paragraph 10)?
+
Discussion Questions #2
•
What and how are these issues
relevant to discussions of
diversity on campus in general?
On the campus you attend?
+
•
Discussion Questions #3
Later in this introduction, Michaels, a liberal, points out
ways in which both conservatives and liberals in
American public life, first, focus on racial or ethnic
differences rather than issues of social inequality and,
second, benefit from doing so. In a 2004 essay, “
Diversity’s False Solace,” he notes:
We like policies like affirmative action not so much because
they solve the problem of racism but because they tell us
that racism is the problem we need to solve…. It’s not
surprising that universities of the upper middle class should
want their students to feel comfortable [as affirmative action
programs enable and encourage them to do]. What is
surprising is that diversity should have become the
hallmark of liberalism.
Analyze the argument made in this paragraph as a Toulmin
Argument.
Discussion Questions #4
+
•
How could you characterize Michael’s
argument? In what ways is it an
argument of fact? A definitional
argument? An evaluative argument?
A casual argument? A proposal? (For
a discussion of these kind of
arguments, see Chapters 8-12)
+
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjZxB
RCeec
•
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTj9Acwk
aKM
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8JEy
bbei60
+
Sources
 http://posiwid.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-is-
purpose-of-diversity.html
 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/lan
dmark_regents.html
 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100780163
 http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/10/business/l
a-fi-lazarus-20131011
 http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/diversity
 http://www.encore.org/find/resources/our-next-
chapter
 http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm