This was posted by Trestin on his blog in mid-January 2010:
Most of the great figures in history only became great after overcoming enormous obstacles. Nothing worth while comes easy. I for one am glad I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I'm glad my family did not just hand everything to me. Having to go though some struggles made me a better person. There is true satisfaction in knowing you earned something. Many minorities have some of that satisfaction stolen by affirmative action programs.
No program has done more to hurt the minorities than affirmative action. Most white people hate affirmative action, but we are not the ones who suffer the most. It seems to say that minorities are losers and can not succeed without extra help. That's not true and we all know it. It is degrading and belittling to honest people to get special treatment when they do not need it.
I am Mormon; our people suffered all kind of persecution. The State of Missouri issued an extermination order against us. Do I ask for special treatment? No, everybody has ancestors that were wronged severely. If you go back far enough, we all have ancestors that were slave owners, and ancestors that were slaves. Human history is filled with slaughter and injustice. We must first stop being victims of the past, before we can benefit from the future.
Affirmative action is the opposite of Dr. King’s vision. Dr. King wanted a world where a man was judged for whom he is, not his ethnic background. Affirmative action does the opposite, it divides us and assigns value based on race. It creates an entitlement mentality that limits true equality. No one is owed anything!
Very few people, judge people based on race. I think our society does for the most part, live Dr. King’s dream. Most of us judge a person by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Why can't of government do the same? It's time to end these backward equality limiting affirmative action programs. Let's stop being African-Americans or Latino-Americans, let's just be Americans.
23 comments:
I totally agree with Trestin's post. I do believe that affirmative action does promote a victimization mentality. I do think it was needed for integration and acceptance purposes right after desegregation occurred but it is not needed now. Affirmative action judges people based on race and not on who is the most qualified or not. I have heard from many people who won't bother hiring African Americans specifically because of affirmative action and being afraid of not being able to fire them if they do not work satisfactorily and the lawsuits that may come from letting a person go due to their job performance being unsatisfactory.
Should a person applying for college or attending college receive financial aid or get accepted into that college primarily because of their race? I don't think so. It should be based on intelligence and that person's performance or lack thereof.
Should a highly qualified person applying for a job get passed over by an unqualified minority just because the company is forced to meet affirmative action quotas? I don't think so.
I am not referring to two people of different races having similar accomplishments and grades etc. That is equal opportunity and whatever the decision would be, that would be based on intellegence or their performance as a student or as an employee rather than race.
If affirmative action was just meant to equal the playing field for various races, then I would say that its job has been done.
But affirmative action is not just for minorities; it is in place to help women, people with disabilities, gays, and other minority groups to stay on the playing field. When you jump outside the box, you realize that discrimination comes in all forms and affirmative action is still a necessary thing.
As a supporter of Affirmative Action, what I find incredibly frustrating is that whenever I hear people talk about how it needs to be done away with, they speak under the assumption that the primary beneficiaries are minorities (mainly African Americans). As Marvalus pointed out, this simply is not true. It may come as a surprise to some of the opponents of Affirmative Action that the primary beneficiaries of these policies are white women. Here is the link to an informative article:
http://aapf.org/focus/episodes/oct30.php
I want to be judged based on my intelligence or capabilities rather than on the basis that I am a woman. There should be no group with an added advantage over the other and that's what affirmative action does, period, regardless of which group it aids. I have no problem with lawsuits for descrimination, but when it comes to favoring certain groups over other groups that is not equality. We are all Americans and should not be lumped into groups or given special privileges with regards to employment and education because a person belongs to a certain group. To me, applying different standards to different sects or groups in our society is demeaning to the person as a human being and treats that person as a victim when we should all strive to be victors, and excell above the odds. That is what gives people a sense of pride and accomplishment.
My beef is that it runs contrary to its intended purpose.
In most respects, it's like the Rooney Rule in the NFL (I realize affirmative action greatly predates this rule, but it's a simplistic way to understand its purpose).
While I don't agree the rule is needed, due to the natural progression of the NFL and not needing to be forced and become false, I understand the spirit of the rule. It's about giving someone who may be overlooked otherwise a chance to get his name out there and to be considered.
But we all know that's not all affirmative action is doing these days. It's about quotas and forced diversity and intimidation.
It has lost its way and that's why it's not needed.
It has morphed into something that forces integration. And while this might not seem that bad, the kicker is that it operates under the assumption that equal opportunity would not happen without its implementation.
Believing that people don't change or progress without something forcing them to do so is a hell of a lot more damaging than most care to believe.
I know a lot of right-leaning people get accused of bigotry over attitudes like this, but folks forget that we're against nanny-state mentalities and programs telling us how to live. And today's affirmative action has a lot of that going on.
Thanks to Diversity Ink and Trestin for this post.
Teresa, you wrote affirmative action judges people based on race and not on who is the most qualified or not. Before affirmative action, the very same statement applied! When I began working, a white healthy male was born on third base. If any one of those three things had been different, a much different work life would have been experienced, qualified or not.
Just last year in my office, a student employee suspected to be gay was fired because one of the employers was uncomfortable around him; they searched for a reason and found his Facebook page. I could give you example after example just in my 40-year work life of how the most qualified rarely got hired. I can guarantee all of you there would be no people of color in my office if not for affirmative action.
Do I think affirmative action will always be necessary? I don't know. I always have faith that the younger generation will move us positively along.
Marvalus makes an excellent point, it is also about women and people with disabilities. Most people I know with disabilities do not want special treatment, the same goes for most women I know. As far as gays, I do not see them as a minority I see them as a group of people that have made a life style choice. To give such a group preference, is really not much different than giving Sci Fi fans, or golfers preference.
I'm not going to put my head in the sand and claim that Affirmative action never helped anyone, but I do believe it does more harm than good.
Teresa also makes a a good point. I knew a woman that was physically disabled, but mentally brilliant. She had a hard time finding a job because employers were afraid of a lawsuit if they had to let her go.
In hard economic times where companies are forced to lay off people these laws can make it more difficult for minorities to find work.
There are some interesting points being made here. I do support affirmative action because I believe it provides access (jobs, college, etc.) to try and level the playing field for the advantaged and the disadvantaged for a variety of historical reasons.
I don't think anyone wants "special treatment" (which strikes me as trying to portray affirmative action in a more negative light). I believe most people want access. Trestin, as an example, says that most people with disabilities do not want special treatment. That maybe true, but they do want access. So, that is the reason we have and should respect parking spots for those with disabilities and electronic doors for disabilities. It's not so much about special treatment as it is about access.
Sandy - Excellent point. Access is key. And, Trestin, I believe the homosexual by choice has long been disproved.
Judi
I challenge you to find me one peer reviewed study that proves homosexuality is not a choice. It is an action and therefore a choice. We are not animals we can control our urges and desires.
Everyone in my family including myself has a temper, yet as a grown man I have never attacked anyone. I may have anger but I'm not violent.
While some people may have sexual urges greater than others, the choice of how they act is theirs. I like women, but choose to wait until marriage before I have sex. Is it easy? No, but it's what I have chosen to do.
Sandy I think that the days of leveling the playing field are over. The prejudiced of the 60's has become rare.
When I came into the Navy my recruiter tried to get me to claim I was Native American. He said I would get a better job, and be promoted faster. If that's not special treatment I do not know what is?
Handicap access is good, but your talking about the Americans Disabilities Act, not Affirmative Action.
The big problem with Affirmative action is, it's a government program. Like many programs with noble intent the government really makes a mess of it.
Isn't the American Disabilities Act also a product of our government? I think that you missed my main point: access. Parking spaces, elevators and electronic doors for those with disabilities helps to provide access. What if we said lets just keep buildings the way they used to be when certain areas could not be accessed by a person in a wheelchair? I don't think any of us would be in favor of that because access is important. Affirmative action has opened up many doors to women and people of color that had previously been shut or doors that were partially shut to limit access. You may be right in that AA and ADA are different, but the mission is the same: provide access.
@Sandy,
Could you please explain to me how having equal access to employment or education for all citizens, without it being biased toward race or gender (without affirmative action) doesn't provide a person equal access for all people?
I believe that affirmative action is biased and does infringe on other people's opportunities. It does favor certain minorities over other races. So, I would argue that affirmative action is descriminatory to the rest of society due in particular to it favoring one group in our society over another.
Teresa,
I am happy to explain. I am going to try this a little differently to see if we can look at it from a different perspective.
I don't consider the American with Disabilities Act to be biased because anyone can end up with a disability. At this point, I am blessed not to have a physical handicap that would require me to have a closer parking space than anyone else or to require me to use an elevator or an electronic door at my job. Does a closer parking space discriminate against me? I don't feel that it does and thus it does not bother me. However, I could get hit by a car and require handicap parking or elevator access to my employment.
Affirmative Action does not necessarily discriminate against white people or white men by intention. It assists those who have historically had access denied or limited and it assists those who are underrepresented in a particular arena. Fifty years from now, whites could be a minority (or in some other way disadvantaged) and benefit from forms affirmative action (should they find themselves underrepresented as women and some ethnic minorities find themselves right now) they decry now. Actually, I could rattle off several forms of affirmative action that benefit whites and white men in particular, but that is not necessarily the point.
Excellent post, Sandy.
Judi, you wrote: "I could give you example after example just in my 40-year work life of how the most qualified rarely got hired. I can guarantee all of you there would be no people of color in my office if not for affirmative action."
I can think of no more damning statement about affirmative action than that one.
Fuzzy - I have just seen your post. It was my attempt to say, however poorly, that during my career I have observed qualified candidates being passed over for jobs specifically because of race. Affirmative Action helped open the door that I feel certain would have otherwise remained closed.
Judi: Why would that door have remained closed? Specifically? Were you unqualified for the job?
Now, Malcolm, why do you support Affirmative Action? Don't you realize that because the policy is explicitly racist (and sexist) that this gives fuel to those who might accuse you of being such also?
How can anyone support a policy designed to deny people opportunity for having the wrong race (or sex)?
It is is a very destructive policy. Lets look at such cases as the infamous Chicago firefighters lawsuit. Some incompetant would-be firefighters who weren't good enough filed a lawsuit demanding to be hired because, despite being unqualified, they were black. These greedy, selfish racists demanded that qualified people be fired and that they be hired just for their skin color. The court accepted the lies of the racists and their attorneys and gave in.
Who is left out in the cold? The legions of white would-be firefighters who weren't good enough. Thanks to this racist policy, they were denied jobs. I am being sarcastic in this last bit.
But yes the city suffered too, as public safety is put in danger by having as firefighters people who don't make the cut, but are only there due to race.
Come on, Malcolm, why not eliminate ALL such policies? There is no excuse for racism, anytime, anywhere.
Marvelus said: "But affirmative action is not just for minorities; it is in place to help women, people with disabilities, gays, and other minority groups to stay on the playing field. When you jump outside the box, you realize that discrimination comes in all forms and affirmative action is still a necessary thing."
How is it necessary to tilt the field in favor of anyone? It is not necessary at all.
And it was never meant to level the playing field, as any time AA comes into play, the playing field is tilted.
dmarks: In regards to the questions you asked Judi and Marvulus, please keep in mind that this post was written over 3 years ago. For all I know, they have unsubscribed from the thread. However, feel free to click on their links and let them know you have questions regarding their comments here.
As for the questions you directed at me, I will answer them when I have more time next week.
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