Dear Larry: You mentioned in an article that "everyone should be held to the same expectations."
My question is: Where do you feel affirmative action plays into this? I am a senior in high school, and there is a lot of talk among my peers about admission to college and racial quotas. It is a well-known truth that a white male has a harder time getting accepted to a university than an African American female, academic success aside.
I completely understand that affirmative action was very necessary during a time of racial turmoil in America. But if everyone is to be truly held to the same standard, then isn't it time for a program enacted in the '60s to end? — Cody
Dear Cody: The short answer to your question is yes. However, it should end not because racial turmoil has waned or the program is old. The program should end because it is not fair in that it favors one group of people over another.
This program was started during the Lyndon Johnson administration of the 1960s. America was undergoing a social revolution — cities across the country were on fire, and riots were in the streets. In the beginning, law enforcement tried to dominate the protestors. This did not work, because too many people joined the revolution. The only way to quiet the country was either to call out the Army or enact drastic social change.
The latter was decided upon, and this led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the affirmative action program. When the program was created and signed into law by Johnson, he summed up his thinking with this statement: "You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'You are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."
The people who were in favor of affirmative action knew it was unfair.
They knew it was "for" one group and "against" another. United States Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun justified the program in 1978, saying that "to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently." The court knew affirmative action was a differential program.
With all that said, this program was never intended to be a permanent system. It was to be temporary until African Americans were brought to a higher societal level.
This is the main point of what is the next step. At what point do we disband the program? Many people will argue the program should continue in perpetuity because it is punitive for past behavior and no one could ever make up for the evils of slavery. Other people will argue the program should end when blacks reach parity with whites.
I believe a country will never be able to legislate equality. This country and blacks have made significant progress. I do not believe minorities will ever reach parity until they are required to compete equally on a level playing field.
To continue favoring one group over another will not only cause resentment of the majority, but it will keep minorities down by treating them as dependent children. Blacks cannot wait for government. What must be done next cannot be accomplished by government.
For example, 70 percent of all black children are born to single mothers. Unless the family is restored and fathers assume their responsibility, nothing within the power of government can change this disgrace. Families without fathers lead to many factors that cause the lack of achievement and parity.
To find out more about Larry G. Meeks and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Regarding affirmative action, I think one of my favorite bloggers said it best. I only wish I'd been wise enough to think of this myself: "Anyone who has been elevated to a job, any job, anywhere, that has something to do with gathering statistics on peoples' racial backgrounds — loses that job. Immediately. Panels are dissolved, initiatives are rolled-back, legislation is repealed. No skin-counting going on, anywhere, for any reason at all. The commissioners, the governors, the auditors, the social scientists who used to do this work — they all have to perform a hundred hours of community service, which mostly consists of appearing in elementary-school classrooms to show kids what racists look like, how they think, what they do, and how they leech good money out of the wallets of innocent, hard-working taxpaying citizens. The hardcore cases who fail to see the error of their ways, get to live in museums as living exhibits. That way, our children and our childrens' children, can see how people can genuinely imagine themselves as “racially sensitive” while, in fact, nurturing hard, bitter, cold racism all the way to the core of their very bones. Honestly, I wish my generation and my parents' generation got an education like that." Our society will never become truly color-blind with government continually stirring the pot and handing out favors based on color.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Matt
Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:18 AM
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Bravo and spot-on as usual, Mr Meeks.
Comment: #2
Posted by: Matt
Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:20 AM
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When it comes to things like this, I prefer what my mother said when I complained, a long time ago, that I didn't get into the grad school I wanted because of racial quotas unfavorable to whites. Her comment: "Geoffrey, only losers complain when other people get an unfair advantage. You had the advantage of a family that can easily pay for an education. You had the advantage of being the product of several generations of college graduates and alumni. You had the advantages of being tall and good looking and white, which means that doors will open that are closed to their people. Nobody will ever look at you and think -- he's dumb and lazy just because of the color of your skin. In life, everyone has 'unfair' advantages of one sort or another. The winners in life look at the cards they've been dealt and either figure out how how to get some new cards. Average people complain about the cards that they've been given but figure out how to play them as well as they can. Only losers complain about the cards that have been to given other people." Matt's comment would have made my mom chuckle.
Comment: #3
Posted by: Geoffrey James
Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:19 AM
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Re: Geoffrey James
Nicely put, Geoffrey. If a white person is moaning that a hiring decision is based on race, imagine what it's like for a person of color? It's not a big leap to suggest that a black person's race is noticed and factored in considerably more often than a white person.
For what it's worth, I've seen my share of people who likely benefitted from affirmative action and never did more than the bare minimum, if even that. I've seen plenty of others in the same position who worked their butts off. I've also observed plenty of white co-workers who left everyone else scrambling to pick up their slack. I've known women who did subpar work and insisted that their lack of advancement was solely due to their being female. Bottom line, there will always companies made up of hard workers and slackers. To automatically associate these qualities according to race alone takes a special brand of laziness.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Jon
Wed Jun 30, 2010 4:01 PM
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Like I try to drill into my child: stupidity isn't a race - it's a choice.
Comment: #5
Posted by: Diana
Sat Jul 3, 2010 11:03 AM
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Well put Mr. Meeks. Another example, “leaders" in minority communities need to stop the, "the white man won't let you." mantra. Also they need to stop the trend of calling minorities who do succeed "Uncle Tom's", or "sell outs".
Those titles create a fear of success, a fear of being castout
Comment: #6
Posted by: Dare
Sun Jul 4, 2010 12:41 PM
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It always kills me when I hear many whites (and their black apologists) bitch and moan about affirmative action and its alleged impact on their livelihoods. As a black man, I cry bollocks. First to you, Mr. Meeks, it was the NIXON administration that brought AA into fruition. For the rest of you, have you ever considered that white guy who makes his way up Bronner Bros.? How about that young man who a year or so back was the first white valedictorian of Morehouse College? What about those virtually all-white golf and baseball teams at Bethune-Cookman or Florida A&M, or the white quartebacks at Grambling? Ever stopped to consider how many southern schools actively recruit and admit rural white students at a different standard than other applicants? How many white kids in NC attend the black (and native American) schools with a little financial cushion known as a minority presence grant? Never mind that NC's former governor was himself an alumnus of NC Central's law school (that's an HBCU as well). I mean, really now. Statistics have long shown that the majority of AA beneficiaries are WHITE WOMEN, who overwhelmingly marry white men, who often have white children, about half of which are males. Put it all together; you know what that tells me? That when it comes to affirmative action, WHITE PEOPLE ARE GIVEN AS MUCH AS THEY FEEL THEY'VE HAD TAKEN AWAY, and it's time for this society to own up to that. I agree with Geoffrey and Jon; if you're using race as an excuse for your failures, you'd probably wouldn't have made it anyway. At least not much more than the idiots who post comments implying that 18 or so million Americans get their leadership from the same five people.
Comment: #7
Posted by: Therren Dunham
Wed Jul 7, 2010 6:08 PM
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It is amusing, yet pitiful how people justify a wrong with examples of wrongs only to make that wrong right. Tsk Tsk. Affirmative action is wrong. Period. The wrongs of generations past are not owed justice by present generation. Nevermind. Let's break out the contracts for 40 acres and a mule along.
Comment: #8
Posted by: Clyde
Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:19 AM
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I feel Matt and Geoffrey have made sensible arguments on both sides that I must agree with.
Yes somehow race can count against a person. I've seen it a couple of times. But all my life I have never complained what cards I got dealt cause I figure I got to do what I got to do with what I got. What else is can one do? Just get out there and do it. Race has never entered into my mind on that.
I appreciate Larry Meeks' thoughts and articles cause its nice to see someone bridge the gap between so many different issues that are not often approached or people fear of talking about.
Comment: #9
Posted by: Kath
Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:30 AM
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Most schools have moved to socio-economic as the indicator rather than race. California's solution (back when I was a sr. in high school) was to automatically admit the top 2 from every highschool to one of the UCs. Not necessarily Berkley or UCLA but one of them. This was there way of giving kids from disadvantaged backgrounds who had proven they had both the brains the inclination to work for what they wanted a chance. And it was for kids from the backwater towns of the Sierras (mostly white) and the inner cities (mostly black) to all get a shot.
I get why the program was started, I think it was probably needed for a brief period of time, but as we move further away, such programs need to shift to help the disadvantaged who want better not just those who say "pity me, I'm a black man in a white world".
Comment: #10
Posted by: Mich
Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:40 AM
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