By now, lots of people have weighed in on the SCOTUS ruling which struck down affirmative action for college admissions. Harvard can now push aside qualified black applicants in favor of old money again, because those with old money have greater "merit."
But speaking of merit, why shouldn't colleges simply admit based on academic achievement? Why not render higher education completely color blind? Isn't that fair? Isn't affirmative action, which was necessary in the past, no longer necessary? Has it become outdated?
And, on the flip side of the coin, is affirmative action part of the "racism of diminished expectations" we hear conservatives complaining about so much?
I don't think this topic has been clarified quite enough. Favoritism of one race over another is a primary component of racism, and there is no denying that affirmative action is, if nothing else, favoring blacks for college admission. So why do it, then? Isn't that racism too?
The answer to this is solid, but sadly, rarely used. It all has to do with the economics of opportunity. Hard work creates opportunity, yes. But privilege also creates opportunity. Better childhood education creates opportunity. Wealth creates opportunity.
And right now, for historic reasons which have been built into the structure of our nation, much of that opportunity has been denied black people. Better jobs, better schools, and better neighborhoods have all been hoarded by whites for a very long time, and they don't want to stop doing so, even when there's plenty to go around. Efforts have been made to alleviate this, but so far, not much has succeeded. We lack the political will to tell the suburbs, "Look, it's time to let the inner city thrive the way you let it thrive back when white people lived there."
As it sits right now, whites largely have the ability to invest in their own merit, and that of their children. This, more than any other factor, helps ensure that their children have good prospects and futures. Blacks, by contrast, cannot invest in merit in quite the same way.
That's why affirmative action exists. Not to fight racism with more racism, but to offset the economics.
That's why it's fair.
Am I saying that we are overlooking merit? Judging by color of skin and not content of character? Yes! But we must remember, whites were once the beneficiaries of affirmative action, too. It was the government's policy to swindle land away from Indians and sell it to white settlers at $1.25 per acre. It was the government's policy in the South to turn a blind eye to the evils of slavery and allow white people to profit and invest in their children's education for generations, while denying blacks the same ability. It was the government's policy to grant loans to white home buyers after World War II, but not blacks. It was the government's policy to enforce economic advantage for whites in the South through segregation, and in the North, through red-lining.
And after all these favoritisms, do I as a white male have the hubris to complain? I think not!
We judge by skin color today, because we judged by skin color then. Fair's fair.
Sadly, some misguided white people don't see it that way.
And admissions merely gets one in the door. Once inside the colleges, blacks must work to achieve just like everybody else. Blacks like Barack and Michelle Obama earned their grades on the same scale as everyone else. They passed the same standards as everyone else. And they graduated with pride, just like everyone else. Just like all black students must do, and have done, since affirmative action was instituted. Affirmative action may have gotten them in, but they stayed in because they earned it!
Someday, blacks in America will achieve economic parity with whites. When that day comes, we will be able to retire affirmative action and live in the perfect meritocracy conservatives prematurely call for now.
But if we do meritocracy too soon, we deny blacks much of the economic opportunity to invest in their own merit, and thus enact an unintentional racism which inhibits them, and keeps them under. In other words, it isn't the "soft racism of diminished expectations" that is the issue. Rather, it is the "soft racism of premature color-blindness."
Premature meritocracy is like seeing a rope which was thrown to someone down a hole. And then, right before the person reaches the top, cuts the rope saying, "Well, you're 80% there, you can handle the rest."
And this is merely admissions to college. Not 40 acres and a mule. Is stamping a form really too high a cost to begin repaying the unbelievably huge tab which is reparations?
Perhaps what has really angered white racists is that affirmative action worked. Many black people have climbed the ladder, and built better lives for themselves. We are seeing more black participation in suburbia, in the entertainment industry, in science fiction, and in all the other recreational activities that were once exclusively white. Good! That's the way it should be!
And now SCOTUS has prematurely removed one of those ladders? Well, that's a loss...
But I think they're too late to stop the positive effects. And those who succeeded will put down ladders of their own.
Eric
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