The Minority Rights Revolution [Book Review]

Extending his 1996 book, The Ironies of Affirmative Action, the cultural sociologist John D. Skrentny here unveils the bureaucratic processes within the national government that rapidly turned what began as civil rights for African Americans into "minority rights" for women, Latinos, Native Americans, and the disabled, but not for white ethnics, gays, or lesbians. Once the long black struggle against legalized discrimination reached its climax in the mass demonstrations and landmark legislation of the 1960s, extension to other groups, he asserts, "came quietly, to the notice of very few and resistance of almost none, in behind-the- scenes bureaucratic rulings, initiatives, and decisions" (p. 211). "It is not clear," Skrentny concludes, pointing particularly to federal support for bilingual education, "that lobbying, protest, and movement leadership were important or necessary for inclusion in the minority rights revolution," a revolution that "took place while no one was watching" (pp. 306, 249).