Aaron Biterman
Aaron Biterman, 19, of Wisconsin, is already a veteran libertarian activist and is currently studying at Endicott College in Massachusetts.
Affirmative
Action
Affirming Another Kind of
Racism
Affirmative action policies often times determine an individual's place and relative income position in society by the ethnic or gender group to which that person belongs as well as that group's "fair share" of jobs, education, and monetary reward. But is atoning for the sins committeded against minorities in the past fair to people who are not minorities in the present?
According to scholars ranging from well-known philosophers like the late Robert Nozick to minority activists such as Ward Connerly and Walter Williams, affirmative action is not just wrong -- but also morally wrong. Government quotas and state-enforced affirmative action usually harm the very people they are intended to help, amounts to "reverse discrimination," and punishes the innocent for the past inequities of the guilty.
Before we can understand the problem caused by affirmative action, it is necessary to understand the argument for affirmative action. There are two arguments for affirmative action, according to Brian W. Jones: "The remediation of disadvantage caused by past discrimination; and the desire to promote diversity" (1).
Theodore M. Shaw, a defender of affirmative action, is largely concerned with societal diversification. "The goal of affirmative action is to break the cycle of discrimination, and to enlarge opportunity for everyone"(2) according to Shaw.
But, as Jones notes, major diversification centers “such as college campuses and municipal employment have often become toxic as a result of increasing racial antagonism.” For every Tracy Davis whom affirmative action has helped, there is a Cheryl Hopwood (of Hopwood v. Texas) who has paid a price. The price paid by those who are denied acceptance because they are not a minority is reverse discrimination, a plainly un-American concept.
“Our Constitution is color blind and neither knows nor tolerates class among citizens (3),” said Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan. America is based upon equality of status; that is to say that everyone should be allowed the same rights regardless of race, creed, religion, ethnicity, background, or sexual orientation. Could Marshall have ever imagined that the America he knew -- the America based upon not denying “to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (4)” -- presently fosters inequality in the form of allocating “special rights” to “special people?”
Affirmative action is not the best way to help minorities, as even well respected minority community members admit. According to Walter Williams, a black Economics Professor at George Mason University, “We can better serve the interests of large numbers of blacks by focusing our energies on … education, disintegrating families, and inner cities with climates that are hostile to economic development and personal safety” (5).
But not only is affirmative action not a good program -- it is also blatantly unfair. Women, African-Americans, and Hispanics are not the only groups that have been oppressed or discriminated against by the U.S. government, yet they are the only groups who claim the need for affirmative action. Why? Because there are strong, well-financed groups in those communities (such as NAACP or NOW) that have a lot of special interest power. If the case for affirmative action ever will be fully established, those who argue in its favor must take into account past U.S. government oppression of minorities such as Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans, and homosexual Americans -- few of whom are currently calling for affirmative action.
In 1939, a ship filled with about 1,200 European Jews headed to Florida with hopes of dropping the Jews off in America. It was denied entrance into the port of Florida, and returned to Nazi Germany. Why? Because of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, always hailed a political hero. Are the Jews asking for affirmative action? No.
In the early 1940s, internment camps were set up in the western U.S.; they harbored Japanese Americans, who were considered barbaric animals to American standards. Are the Japanese asking for affirmative action? No. Because the Jews and the Japanese have made it in America through the only way you can make it in America: hard work, smart investing, and personal responsibility. Groups such as African-Americans, Hispanics, and women should learn from the experiences of their oppressed brethren (namely, the Jews and the Japanese).
Affirmative action amounts to no less than reverse, government-enforced racism, as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld -- both through the U.S. Constitution and through Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- in 1978’s University of California Regents v. Bakke (6). "Affirmative action has also failed to reach the most economically and or socially disadvantaged minorities in our country. The fact is that affirmative action currently disproportionately helps those (middle class and wealthy minorities and women) who need it the least (7)," according to the Congress of Racial Equality, an organization led by black brothers Niger and Roy Innis.
Think about it. People are kept down
because of the past actions of their ancestors. The
innocent are punished because of what the guilty have
done. In his essay on affirmative action, James Webb
states that the isolated leaders have “mandated an
equal opportunity bureaucracy in the military,
government,
and even industry that closely resembles the Soviet
‘political card’.” In this system, the
sole function is to report ‘political
incorrectness’ and to encourage the promotion of
literally everyone but him and his kind (8).
The goal of affirmative action is to “improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women (9),” a notable, worthwhile and reasonable goal. Unfortunately, affirmative action often harms the very people it is attempting to help. At the University of California Davis, every 16 out of 100 openings are automatically given to minority students. What happens to white students who may be smarter than the minority students? The white students are left behind because, if they aren’t left behind, “racism” is screamed.
While there are compelling arguments on
both sides of the issue, it has been well over thirty
years since affirmative action programs began. The time
to end
them -- once and for all -- is now. Equality of status is
an important concept that America is based upon. It
should be fostered and taught to our children and
children’s children. God forbid that Americans once
again stand tall for equal rights and pounce upon special
rights granted to special individuals -– regardless
of ethnicity, religion, creed, or sexual orientation.
Notes:
1. DeGeorge, Rob (ed.). Government by the People. Pearson Education (2002): 363.
2. DeGeorge, Rob (ed.). Government by the People. Pearson Education (2002): 362.
3. Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896), cited in DeGeorge, Rob (ed.). Government by the People. Pearson Education (2002): 360.
4. U.S. Constitution, Amendment 14, cited in Woll, Peter. American Government: Readings and Cases. Longman (2002): 470.
5. Williams, Walter. "Affirmative Action Can’t Be Mended." The Cato Institute. December 15, 1997.
6. DeGeorge, Rob (ed.). Government by the People. Pearson Education (2002): 361.
7. Innis, Roy and Niger Innis. "Advice to the next President of the United States on matters of Race." The Congress of Racial Equality. August 22, 2000.
8. Webb, James. In Defense of Joe Six-Pack. Bedford Publishers (1997): 400-401.
9. Merriam Webster College Dictionary OnLine. 2000.
