Tue 28 Oct 2008
If Barack Obama gets elected next week, there are a lot of people who think this is proof positive that America is now color-blind, or at least that racial discrimination has been reduced to a minimal level.
While electing the first African American President would be ground-breaking progress in race relations, let’s not overreact. Should Obama win, he will have had to counter the roughly 6% of the public who would not in any circumstances vote for him because he is black. In comparing him with John McCain, it is amazing the race is even close.
Might the “Obama effect” lead to an end to affirmative action? I think this is very much a possibility. There are several examples of high-profile people of color in the Bush administration - Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzales, Norman Mineta come to mind. If an African American is elected President, there will be significant pressure to abolish Affirmative Action programs under the mis-guided assumption that they are no longer needed. Several states have passed ballot initiatives prohibiting race conscious programs, and more are certain to try it if Obama is elected.
Just because there are a few high-profile minorities in positions of power does not mean racial discrimination does not exist in the workplace. Affirmative action programs exist to correct evidence of historical discrimination, and should be sun-setted when racial parity is achieved for the entire workforce, not just the top position.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Everything has an equal and opposite reaction, Obama’s presidency will have some interesting effects on race. I have noticed corporate America has been leaning toward a syntax change from Affirmative Action to Diversity. This is good, because in a changing climate Affirmative Action sounds draconian and domineering, Diversity sounds profitable and voluntary. Rather than try to maintain status quo with affirmative action, a change of tactics with diversity may actually gain ground as a new president takes charge.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I agree that Racial Preferences “affirmative action” are no longer needed. Probably never needed actually. It’s always better NOT to discriminate, then reverse the discrimination. Especially if you are the poor white bastard that was denied medical school to make up for a problem that wasn’t his fault.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
My third-grade daughter was denied a spot in the Gifted and Talented Program class at the public school right around the corner from our house BECAUSE SHE IS WHITE!!! They said they had a spot for a black person. So if I wanted my daughter to be in the Gifted and Talented Program at school (which she was qualified for), I had to have her bussed clear across town to another school that had an opening for a WHITE student. Can you believe that?!!! I was livid! That is racial discrimination disguised as AFFIRMATIVE ACTION! The action I took: I removed her from the public school all together and enrolled her in a private Christian school. Yes… I, a single mother who didn’t receive a dime of child support sacraficed all I could to be able to pay full price for it too. There were no financial programs or subsidies. You either paid for it or the tuition didn’t get paid.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:02 am
How is giving a person a chance making up for a problem that wasn’t thier fault? affirmative action is giving someone the chance to be taken seriously employed…if ancestoral whites hadn’t denied minorities in the first place, there would be no need for affirmative action..but lets not forget, affirmative action not only covers race, it also covers gender, religion, sexual orientation, age and weight discrimination as well…sometimes seeing things from someone else’s point of view is better than always having the upper hand…whites who have to compete with minorites can better understand the struggles minorities have had than someone who has always had thier foot in the door due to racial nepotism.
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!
December 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
“My third-grade daughter was denied a spot in the Gifted and Talented Program class at the public school right around the corner from our house BECAUSE SHE IS WHITE!!! They said they had a spot for a black person.”
This is necessary for practical reasons. If were completely color blind or gender neutral, then this would create a different problem.
Your daughter, assuming she was qaulified, may have had scores equal or comparable to the few minority students who have also achieved qualifying scores. If we ignore race, we’d overlook this small group of kids. The public school would then be completely white and no minorities would benefit.
There is usually anywhere from 10 to 20 qualified white kids per black child with qualifying scores. The problem with ignoring race and only considering other factors such as poverty, single parent home, etc., is that there are several qualified students from the majority that meet this criteria as well. They would likely acquire those slots as well, because many would have higher scores then the minority kids. I am not saying that these students don’t deserve to get in, but they should be admitted by using some of the slots reserved for white students.
And to be quite honest with you, there is no reason to assume that your child would have been admitted if that one slot was not reserved for a minority. Another white child with higher scores may have beaten her out. There usually are more qualified candidates than there are available slots in those TAG programs.