Monday, March 10, 2008

Is Affirmative Action on the way out?

So a dear friend (CC) points out that I haven't been posting for a few days. Finally, a 'fan' who cares (although I'm not sure she agrees with everything I write).

Anyway, speaking on the issue of the US elections, isn't this the meanest-spirited election year ever? And all of it coming from the Democratic Party cabal of Bill-Hill. Americans, do not make that mistake this year. McCain IS a credible alternative if you decide you want experience, not the nonsense that Hillary projects. Of course, at this point, I'm guessing the Bill-Hill machine, while losing the popular vote among delegates, leans into a few super-delegates and forces them (overtly and covertly) to support her and turn the tables against Barack. Then, watch the Republican machine go to work against the Bill-Hill ticket. It'll be an ugly 3 or 4 months, but I'll enjoy every minute of it.

I was also sent an article this morning. Find it linked here:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/07/affirmative.action/index.html

This is VERY interesting! In principle, I agree with the fellow (of African and Native American ancestry) who is proposing this idea. I don't need to waste any more virtual space, but I think my views were appropriately espoused in my write-ups on Afrocentric schools. In practice, however, I find it a little bit hypocrtical coming from someone who has probably benefited from affirmative action. If Mr. Connerly is willing to rescind all benefits he probably gained from affirmative action, then I'm with him. Of course, it's darn near impossible to gauge what benefits he may have realized...
That being said, the one group to have benefitted the most from affirmative action is the white female group, so perhaps Mr. Connerly is onto something in disguise...
My point is that I expect African-Americans to lay into me when I criticize affirmative action, because it probably has had some benefit to them, or someone close to them. I'm not sure it's the best response to slavery and the lack of opportunities that followed from that, and I would rather that a better solution - perhaps increased funding for inner city schools - had been implemented instead, but since it's here, it should be left alone.
I can criticize it though, because I have never benefitted from it, nor will I ever do (likely). An African-American wanting it banned is an interesting concept, so let's see how it plays out.

CC wanted to know how the afrocentric issue is playing out...what can I say? The proposal has been approved, the Premier of Ontario has voiced his displeasure (although he hasn't exactly come up with a way to solve the problems afrocentric schools claim they will), but in the end, the school will be established. It remains to be seen if there'll be any benefits, but I'm not even counting on anything close to that happening.

3 comments:

  1. Of course I will disagree with you on the affirmative action though in agreement with something you said about public school funding and white women benefiting. I'm not sure how much I may or may not have benefited from affirmative action because as far as I am concerned I have been very qualified for the things that I have done.
    To take out affirmative action would be as someone in the article said a step back. Otherwise something else would have to be done to account for the discrepancies. I do not agree with the thinking that affirmative action is just about getting underqualified minorities to take over where their white counterparts should be nor that only Blacks and Latinos benefit. It helps to get past some of the mental astigmatisms that many people in power in the U.S. still have. However as eluded to it still does not get to the root of the problem. The school systems are still very much biased and unequal. This is why so many Blacks with money pay top dollar to have their children go to school with White kids. If you are coming from a place where your kids are not getting what they need in school and parents never learned these things for various you reasons you have a lot of people merely treading water sometimes without realizing it. I know for my brother to get in school he ended up getting a lot of help from his then girlfriend's school counselor (she was at a predominantly white school). Their way of thinking and going about things and preparing their students for school was completely different.
    Speaking of parents not knowing things I think as with so many other things the issues in family structure, etc. have some affects on this as well. But let me not begin blogging in your comments. :-)

    I guess my point is basically don't take out something that at least helps a little replacing it with nothing while acting as though everything is peachy keen

    Interesting several months indeed. Not fooled by the underhanded tactics and general griminess of the Clinton machine.

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  2. Agree with you about not taking it out since it does help a bit. I guess what I'm not in agreement with is the general assumption among both blacks and whites in the US that as a black person you can slack off a bit and ride the coattails of affirmative action into college or the workforce. This breeds resentment in whites and complacency in blacks and latinos. For AA to be successful, we must reach the point where it isn't needed anymore, and we are a long way from that. In the years since it was implemented, the number of blacks going into college hasn't risen a lot. What we are seeing is a higher number of blacks in the more respected institutions, etc. The bottom of the barrel has been unaffected, and that's where the work should be done. It's that group that's giving blacks a bad name and reinforcing old stereotypes among the white majority.

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