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             Even more damning to the practice of affirmative action, furthermore, if found in the second caveat of Alinsky to radical groups that they must never go outside the expertise of their people, as feeling secure in one"s identity "stiffens the backbone." This suggests that going to a traditionally all-Black institution might be more socially behooving to a Black man or woman wishing to destabilize the dominant paradigm-he or she will not have to deal with White students, for example, who make him or her feel guilty about seeming or being 'too Black." This rule also suggests that traditionally all- female intuitions may more fostering of women"s collective excellence in the long run, then women of having to compete on male terms in higher education. .

             Affirmative action calls upon minorities to adopt hegemonic customs and enter into the dominant culture, but Alinsky suggests, stress one"s difference to succeed if one is a radical, that whenever possible, a radical person must go outside the expertise of the target and look for ways to increase the insecurity, anxiety, and uncertainty of the persons in power who have disenfranchised your group in the past. Throw off the balance of common corporate America, not by attending Harvard Business School, but by being like rap mogul Russell Simmons and marketing the language of the street to White and Black youths alike, but in Black language, on Black terms. Be like Martha Stewart and sell a feminine product, rather than concealing one"s domestic aspirations, if one wishes to be a diva with a corporate empire.

             In some ways, of course, affirmative actions is congruent with Alinsky"s ideal that an oppressed group should make the target of its attacks live up to its own book of rules, or in Alinsky"s terms, if the rule is that every letter or E-mail gets a reply, send thousands. Minority groups through affirmative action are making powerful American social and political institutions; live up to the American credo of liberty and justice for all, and the pursuit of happiness for all its citizens.