Affirmative Action
The idea that different subcategories of humans exist, and that depending
on
one's point of view, some subcategories are inherently inferior to others,
has
been around since ancient times. This concept eventually gained the label
of
"race" in 1789, a "zoological term... generally defined as
a
subcategory of a species which inherits certain physical characteristics
that
distinguish it from other categories of that same species." (Tivnan
181).
Although slavery has been by and large eliminated in virtually
every part of the
modern world, the concept used to rationalize its
implementation,
"racism", still plagues most modern cultures. Races that were
once
enslaved, or are minorities within their society, are often
discriminated
against in a variety of ways. This attitude can result in
actions as severe as
the Holocaust of World War II, or as minor as a
dismissive glance from a
salesman at an uptown department store. In America,
an active war has been waged
on discrimination since minorities and women
rallied for equal rights in the
Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. In
the last 35 years, the American
government has made strides toward ending
discrimination altogether, enacting
social policies designed to give the
downtrodden minorities a leg-up in a
white-dominated society. One such
policy, Affirmative Action, generally refers
to programs that give
preferential treatment to minority groups based on
socioeconomic status and
which try to correct past injustices inflicted upon
said groups. This use of
racial criteria to award opportunities in fields like
education and
employment has sparked major debates over reverse discrimination
and moral
obligation in today's America. Many claim that blacks in America have
a
"moral claim" to compensate them for the "paramount
injustice" inflicted upon
them, slavery (Tivnan 202). Although slavery
ended nearly 200 years ago,
racism was tolerated and even encouraged by the
American government and
was "virtually public policy" for most of the
20th century (Tivnan 202).
Proponents of affirmative action believe society owes
blacks for these past
injustices. In addition to repaying blacks, these policies
are "socially
useful" to the whole of society, according to Ronald
Dworkin in his book
"Why Bakke Has No Case". By helping today's
impoverished blacks, we can
attempt to end the vicious cycle of poverty within
just a few generations.
Parents assisted by affirmative action will be better
able to raise their
children, who will be better educated and therefore receive
better jobs
without assistance. In some cases, the color of one's skin can be
as
important a criteria as their intelligence or experience. "If a black
skin
will, as a matter of regrettable fact, enable another doctor to do a
different
medical job better (e.g. minister to an urban ghetto population),
then black
skin ought to be taken as 'merit' as well" (Qtd. In Tivnan 206).
The fact
that black or white skin enables one to do a job better is not a
measure of
personal worth, just as people who can play basketball better
because of their
height are not inherently superior to those who cannot.
Although affirmative
Action does not solve all the problems, or resolve
all the issues, you have to
ask yourself: What would society be like without
affirmative action? (Tivnan
211) Other's argue that "you cannot wipe out
injustice with another
injustice" (Tivnan195). Discriminating against whites
is just as wrong as
discriminating against blacks. After all, when a society
wants to make things
equal, it does not mean reversing the current situation
and trampling the rights
of different demographic instead. Whites and blacks
shouldn't be on separate
lists in the career world, just as they shouldn't
have separate dining
accommodations (Tivnan195). Another point raised is that
affirmative action has
been shown to hurt blacks more than it helps them
(Tivnan 198).
"Affirmative action implies inferiority" (Tivnan 198), and
although it
does give some blacks opportunities they would otherwise be
without, it still
propagates racism and racial tension in the workplace.
"Preferential
treatment...subjects blacks to a midnight of self-doubt, and so
often transforms
their advantage into a revolving door." (Tivnan 198). They
would prefer a
"level playing field", and hate that fellow employees think
that they
got to their position not through hard work, but through a
government program,
even though that may not be the case (Tivnan 200).
Striving to attain
"diversity", the goal of so many organizations, often
hides the fact
that many blacks aren't prepared for these opportunities.
According to Shelby
Steele's "The Content of Our Character", only 26% of
black college
students graduate from college within six years of admission.
Although these
figures are interesting, they are totally unrelated to the
real victims of
affirmative action: millions of poor blacks in inner-city
ghettos who will never
go to college and are only hoping for a decent job. To
these blacks
"outside the mainstream of the American occupational system",
these
highbrowed issues are "stunningly irrelevant" (Qtd. in Tivnan 199).
In
spite of affirmative action, more blacks are serving time in prison than
a
decade ago. It is time for the successful members of the black community
to
embrace the black underclass by becoming community leaders with ideas
and
visions for the future of our country. I believe that affirmative action
is a
noble and well-intentioned program, and that at one time it may have
been the
correct policy to uphold, but now "The moment for affirmative action
has
passed." (Tivnan 200). Although the past injustices inflicted on blacks
are
certainly inexcusable, they are not justification for "payback" in
a
direct sense. Anyone directly involved in slavery is long since deceased,
and
although the legacy of slavery is alive and well today, we should be
helping
these impoverished people because we want to better our nation as a
whole. By
bringing as many people as possible above the poverty line,
regardless of the
color of their skin, we make America a better place. By
increasing the quality
of our pathetically under-funded public education
system, and especially by
easing cultural pressures on young inner-city
blacks to drop out of school, we
can make each generation better prepared to
meet the challenges of today's
workplace until a program such as affirmative
action would be seen as insulting
by any
race.
Bibliography
Tivnan, Edward. The Moral Imagination . New
York: Touchstone, 1996.