Silence at Boalt Hall: The Dismantling of Affirmative Action

Guerrero provides both a well-written account of the rise and fall of affirmative action at Boalt Hall, and an articulate argument for the merits, especially in law school, of affirmative action. Her writing eschews ideological hyperbole and throughout remains grounded in the real issues affecting the greater population by a lack of diversity in law schools and the law community at large. Even those who disagree with affirmative action will find this book of interest for the readable account of, and insight into, the students of Boalt Hall who felt compelled to fight for their beliefs.

This book is thoroughly researched and compellingly argued. Guerrero takes a case study of the effects of affirmative action at Boalt Law School at the University of California at Berkeley, which was forced to abandon affirmative action several years ago. She concludes that the new policy has been a disaster for the educational quality of the school, which greatly benefits from the presence of a wide range of backgrounds and experiences among its students. Guerrero was admitted in the last class at Boalt to use affirmative action before it was dismantled by Ward Connerly and the Board of Regents. The results were dismaying, as the diversity at Boalt plummeted to embarrassingly low levels. Although it has recovered somewhat through the efforts of the admissions staff, the white and Asian populations there now dominate the classes at the expense of African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. This is greatly detrimental to the educational experience. How, for example, can Boalt adequately teach about the legal issues facing Native Americans when it has almost none in its student body to enrich the education of others? This book is a particularly important read in light of the upcoming Supreme Court case on affirmative action at the University of Michigan. This book details what the negative impacts when affirmative action is abolished, even under the weak alternative offered by President Bush. And by the way, [in my opinion,] another book on diversity at Boalt entitled The Diversity Hoax is a right-wing rant with factual errors rampant throughout.... Silence at Boalt Hall is a far better piece of investigative research. I highly recommend it.