The Hidden Debate is a fresh and cutting-edge comparative analysis of the ongoing and highly charged social conflict over affirmative action in South Africa and the United States. The debate over affirmative action has raged for over thirty years in the United States, and since the early 1990s in South Africa, with minimal agreement or resolution. In part this discord remains because scholars, journalists, politicians, and other social analysts have failed to properly specify and examine the problem. In The Hidden Debate, Dr. Khalfani develops the shell/core embedded conflict theory, a new theoretical approach to understanding social conflict, which argues that public debates over policy issues, like affirmative action are at a stasis because the debating parties, are not directly debating the true sources of the social conflict. African-origin and European-origin populations, interpret and view core societal principles differently, that these divergences represent the core conflict over the implementation of affirmative action policies and programs, and that the divergences are intimately linked to the racialized histories and legacies of these populations and countries.

The Hidden Debate is a fresh and cutting-edge comparative analysis of the ongoing and highly charged social conflict over affirmative action in South Africa and the United States. The debate over affirmative action has raged for over 30 years in the United States and since the early 1990s in South Africa with minimal agreement or resolution. In part this discord remains because scholars, journalists, politicians, and other social analysts have failed to properly specify and examine the problem.