Information on this page is made up of excerpts from:

Don't Believe The Hype, by Farai Chideya

"Pulling Your Race Card," Lee Copeland,The Source magazine, November, 1995

Most critics of affirmative action make the easy argument that the discrimination of the past can't be atoned for forever. This argument obscures the fact that job discrimination is very much a current problem. The federal government defines affirmative action as

"...action taken first to remedy patterns which show flagrant underutilization of minorities or women as a consequence of past discrimination perpetuated in present...systems, and secondly, to prevent future ... discrimination which would prolong these patterns."(note1)

Affirmative action has nothing to do with past wrongs, like slavery, lynching, Jim Crow or any other practices in America's history that the mainstream would rather forget. The courts disallowed using past discrimination as a justification for affirmative action a long time ago. Affirmative action as it exists is meant to disrupt and overturn ongoing, outdated actions that block certain individuals from their access to their full rights as citizens, including equal employment, educational and other opportunities.

As long as "past discrimination" is the sole standard, it will be easy for critics to portray affirmative action as unfairly penalizing whites, as opposed to correcting ongoing discrimination against blacks.

Most people tend to think "Black" whenever affirmative action is mentioned. However, white women, racial "minorities," and people with physical disabilities all benefit from these programs. The table below lists the grounds for and number of claims filed in 1993.

 

Discrimination Claims filed with the Equal Opportunity Commission in 1993:

 

Despite all the noise politicians make about quotas, QUOTAS DO NOT EXIST. There is a common belief that because of quotas (preset numerical goals), employers are forced by the government to hire unqualified persons of color, who displace more suitable white candidates. The Supreme Court eliminated quotas as unconstituional in 1978.

Only when instances of prior discrimination have been documented and brought before the courts are companies monitored and forced to comply with federal guidelines and in some cases required to create affirmative action plans. Large public firms simply must demonstrate that they give all applicants an equal opportunity. Small and private companies are not required to submit any documentation.

The color of your skin - something which, of course, no one can choose - is a clear advantage or disadvantage in the workplace. It's no wonder that some white Americans feel resentful of being stripped of this advantage. One analogy for the position of whites in affirmative action might be this: Tax time has come, and you mistakenly get an extra fifty dollars in your IRS refund. That same fifty dollars is mistakenly debited from someone else's check. It wasn't your fault the IRS gave you the money. Yet even if you didn't realize you'd benefitted from this, the federal government (if vigilant) would still make you give the money back. It's difficult to think about the issue of race in these terms, but in the American job market, being born white is still a clear and unearned advantage. And the value of skin color over a lifetime is far, far more than fifty dollars, as evidenced by the staggering racial homogeneity in the top jobs in American industry. For example, a 1991 survey by the consulting firm Korn/Ferry found that white males still control 95 percent of top corporate positions. (note2)

 

Notes
1. The Potamac Institute, Affirmative Action: The Unrealized Goal (Washington, D.C.: 1973): 1; cited in The Committee on Policy for Racial Justice, The Inclusive University (Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Press, 1993): 15.

2. Sylvester Monroe, "Does Affirmative Action Help or Hurt?" Time (5/24/91).