Reading Questions
1. According to Walter Benn Michaels, what’s the solace of diversity? Why do Americans
love to talk about race?
2. According to Michaels, what’s the problem with focusing on diversity? Why is its
solace false?
3. What changes did the Supreme Court decision in Bakke v. Board of Regents bring
about?
4. How does paragraph 7 help us understand the essay? ( I’m not sure if this question is
tricky, but it may be. )
5. How does the description of the University of Illinois, Chicago, in the first two
paragraphs illustrate Michaels’s ideas as you present them in your answers to 1 and 2?