Ad-In/Ad-Out: deciding victory and defeat in affirmative action legal contestations .
Albany Law Review › Vol. 66 Nbr. 2, December 2002
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Ad-In/Ad-Out: deciding victory and defeat in affirmative action legal contestations .
At this point, I wish to express my thanks to all of you for persevering this afternoon. I truly appreciate those of you who have been at this event for the duration. It has been a very rich day, and I hope that our panel will continue in that vein. Before I begin my discussion, I would also like to echo this gratitude to the law review folks who invited us here. It really has been an insightful day, and I want to thank you all for affording me the opportunity to complement this already stimulating panel exchange.
For those of you who were here earlier, you know that we had a little bit of a discussion about sports, and the title of my discussion evokes that. My discussion--Ad-In/Ad-Out: Deciding Victory and Defeat in Affirmative Action Legal Contestations--is an amalgam of sports and legal terminology and concepts, and as an avid tennis fan, I have found much to admire in Venus and Serena Williams in the tennis world. (1) The Williams sisters are not the first African Americans to excel on the tennis court, but they are among the very few to reach such echelons. (2) Their rise to the top of their largely elitist, expensive, and exclusive sport is unparalleled in many respects. (3) Although Venus and Serena Williams are not typically considered an affirmative action success stow, several aspects of their experience underscore important considerations at the heart of the legal and social debate surrounding affirmative action policy. It is important to recognize that the Williams sisters have become the standard bearers in a field in which African Americans previously were excluded on the basis of race and economic disadvantage. Early indications hardly suggested their success, despite showing early promise at the sport. For example, as one writer compared the experiences of the Williams' and Pete Sampras: Sampras, arguably the best player to ever pick u...See the full content of this document
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