A Concession

“It is my hope that one day we will no longer need affirmative action. As our society becomes more diverse, the need for specific programs aimed at targeted groups will obviously diminish. However, that time has not yet arrived.” -Charles J. Ogletree Jr.

Although my last post was a bit critical of the affirmative action program, I have some concessions that I'd like to make in its favor.

Many problems with the old affirmative action policies have been remedied. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke was a Supreme Court decision in 1978 that upheld affirmative action but declared quotas, or prescribed numbers of minority students and workers, were unconstitutional. Quotas are often cited as the most racist components of affirmative action policies, and because they are no longer constitutionally legal, modern affirmative action can’t be criticized on that basis.

Ok, fine. Quotas are out of the picture.

If the government tried to appease every individual in America, nothing would get done. But by focusing on the community, we are able to better serve the needs of the whole.

A noted educational authority, Alexander Astin, conducted a national four-year longitudinal study of student outcomes that surveyed 25,000 undergraduates at 217 four-year colleges and universities. Based on this study, Astin concluded that “emphasizing diversity either as a matter of institutional policy or in faculty research and teaching, as well as providing students with curricular and extra-curricular opportunities to confront racial and multicultural issues, are all associated with widespread beneficial effects on a student's cognitive and affective development.”

Anthony P. Carnevale, vice president for public leadership at the Educational Testing Service, extended this idea with research of his own. “Diverse work groups and customers are not only inevitable, they also are more efficient, flexible, and creative at a time when the intensity and complexity of organizational life and economic competition reward these behaviors the most.”

Even with all this in mind, however, I still hold by my original point. Affirmative action programs are inherently racist. The only way we can truly get rid of racism is to stop acknowledging it.