Affirmative Action - Does It Benefit Mankind?

Lets examine one particular specimen of social engineering that has literally impacted every American ‑ Affirmative Action.

Over the last 30 years, “liberal” elements within society have determined that we as a people have discriminated against various minorities in this country, whereby many individuals are prohibited from higher education and meaningful professional opportunities. There is no dispute, at least in my mind that discrimination has existed in every corner of the country. I have personally witnessed racism and discrimination against Jews, African-Americans, Irishmen, Chinese, and above all, women. The question at hand therefore is to hopefully end meaningless discrimination, what course do we follow? This is the fundamental question, but as with many other questions that confront a continuing evolving society, especially a society based on democratic ideals, the issue has become muddled by irrational concepts.

As an example, according to current social engineering principles, we owe the African-American peoples of the nation compensation for the bonds of slavery in which these people were held over 150 years ago. Therefore, Affirmative Action was created by some well-meaning intellectuals who wanted to correct the evils of the past in this country by reimbursing the African-Americans for the terrible injustices they have endured over many years. The intellectually elite have created laws to provide advantages to so‑called discriminated peoples by establishing educational “slots” at universities and job opportunities for many people who, according to the current academic theories, would not have an opportunity to participate which will then afford them higher pay‑scales and status. Even American corporations have hopped on the bandwagon, being overly aggressive as to how their workforce is racially balanced. Heaven forbid – they wouldn’t want to offend the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP), but more importantly, they might be sued.

Even though Affirmative Action is no longer the major issue that once dominated the headlines, it is symptomatic of the irrational methodologies that often prevail within our government and culture. Even California, with the highest percentage of minorities in the country, eventually rejected Affirmative Action.

When I grew up, I lived in a predominantly white neighborhood, but I can never remember any disparaging racial remarks from my family. I had never lived or attended school with any African-Americans or Puerto Ricans (the two most predominate minorities in New York). When I was drafted into the U. S. Army in 1967, my eyes were opened wide in basic training. The Army, in its infinite wisdom, had placed draftees from New York on one side of the barracks and members of the Texas National Guard on the other side of the barracks. Needless to say, there were no minorities in the Texas National Guard. One of the African-American kids exhibited a New York “street smarts” attitude and for a time was the recipient of disparaging remarks from one of the members of the Texas National Guard, who I remember to this day had a very noticeable red neck. Within a few days, the two of them were brawling in the back of the barracks. What amazed me the most, however, was where they found the energy, as the rest of us were exhausted after 12 to 15 hour days of crawling through mud and rain in 100+ degree weather at the height of the Georgia summer. After a week or so, this battle ventured into the realm of a main event where the two of them would square off for 5 to 10 minutes every night just before lights out in an almost circus-like atmosphere. This was my first encounter with racism, but during my two years in the Army I made friends with many African-American soldiers.

Under affirmative action, minorities (predominately African-Americans) were given advantages in entry in college and jobs in the government. I suppose some misguided fool who has spent his or her entire life in the vacuum of academia honestly believed that by doing so the minorities would achieve equality through education and their increased paycheck. Remember my discussion about the “classless society?” It’s all an effort to achieve a balanced society, which is a wonderful THEORETICAL idea, but there are many factors that come into play that easily usurp these intentions. By granting advantages to one class or culture, you automatically have to exclude some hard working students who otherwise would have gained admittance to the college of their choice by sheer hard work.

Since the Democrats, and die-hard liberals within their ranks, have been trying to correct the social inequities of slavery and racial bias by first, the welfare system, then affirmative action, and lastly by cultural diversity (just another twisted way that academia pushes affirmative action), it’s all a conspiracy to remove cultural uniqueness so everyone blends into the “classless society.” I ask the question, “Why do we need cultural diversity” within the educational system or the workplace? I have read various articles on the subject stating that it exposes various ethnic groups to other cultures to gain an understanding and appreciation of that culture. I suspect that ulterior motives are at work here, in that it is all camouflage to achieve the secular (worldly rather than spiritual), multi-cultural, “neutral-values” society desired by the liberals that are in direct conflict with the values system so highly cherished by the vast majority of Americans.

Not too long along ago, there was a movement afoot to give all African-Americans a lump payment (authorized by Congress) to compensate for these injustices. Fortunately, that asinine concept died a quick death. I suppose this effort was to alleviate our conscience for their ill treatment in much the same way that Congress authorized payments of $20,000 to the Japanese-Americans who were held in labor camps during World War II. Let me very clear about this as a former GI. During the Vietnam War, when a GI was killed in action his family received $10,000 in life insurance money for his or her death. Is Congress telling me that an interred Japanese-American’s discomfort for a few years or the enslavement of African-Americans over 150 years ago is worth more than the life of one of our warriors?

Yes, even though slavery is still practiced in many areas of the world, like the Sudan, its evil and wrong - no question about it. Should we pay somebody because of errors that were made 150 to 250 years ago? Don’t be ridiculous. Somebody’s always trying to give away my tax dollars. This is just one example of our loss of rational priorities.

To quote George Carlin’s “Bad American”,

“I’ve never owned a slave, or was a slave, ..... so shut up.”

It may appear that I’m over simplifying the issue but doesn’t Affirmative Action really say, “African-Americans are inferior. Therefore, we are going to give you special treatment to afford you an opportunity to catch up with the rest of us?” In my mind, Affirmative Action is an insult and a slap in the face to the African-American culture.

The question therefore arises, “will this theoretical approach provide an equally educated, harmonious and balanced job force in future years?” Let’s see what some other knowledgeable people had to say on the subject.

Supreme Court Rulings

On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court continued the long-simmering debate about the constitutionality of Affirmative Action by ruling (5 to 4) that the University of Michigan’s decision to permit race as a factor in admissions was legal with certain provisos.

In Justice Sandra O’Connor’s ruling, she wrote,

“We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

Future cases probably will require the court to split and resplit hairs about what the constitution supposedly says concerning how much weight race can be given by institutions as they engineer “diversity” to produce a homogeneous society. In reality there is a strong camp that suspects that the eventual goal is a “classless society”. For any of you who have studied Marxism and Leninism, the “classless society” is an important tenet of this social engineering. “Politically correct” is just a stepping-stone to classless society, socialism and most likely, total government control.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a somewhat dissenting opinion by stating,

“Unlike a clear constitutional holding that racial preferences in state educational institutions are permissible, or even a clear anticonstitutional holding that racial preferences in state educational institutions are OK, today’s Grutter-Gratz split double header seems perversely designed to prolong the controversy and the litigation.”

Justice Clarence Thomas (who is African-American) stated,

“Blacks can achieve in every avenue of American life without the meddling of university administrators.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote,

“The stain of generations of racial oppression is still visible in our society, and the determination to hasten its removal remains vital.”

Regarding the opinion of another African-American man, in 1865 Frederick Douglass wrote,

“The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us …All I ask is, give (the Negro) a chance to stand on his own legs. Let him alone!”

I have just one question for the advocates of affirmative action/ethnic diversity:

“What planet were you people born on, because you weren’t born on the same planet I’m familiar with?”

Does our constitution not clearly define that “all men are created equal?” Revisionists are trying to rewrite American history by demonizing Jefferson, Hamilton and the other framers of the constitution. These men were light years ahead of the rest of the social and political practices in vogue during that era. Yes, and great men make mistakes, too – they owned slaves. But how can we question in retrospect the environment these geniuses lived in 250 years ago. Hindsight is wonderful, isn’t it? As inconceivable as it may sound, blacks were not regarded as human beings in that time frame. Yes, this is true. They were viewed as ignorant uneducated savages whose only purpose was to pick cotton or perform other mundane tasks, much akin to a robot in today’s technology. Therefore, the Founding Fathers saw no conflict between the “all men are created equal” principle and the enslavement of sub-human beings.

Justice Ginsburg’s opinion regarding the “stain of generations of racial oppression”, lends me to ask what racial oppression are we talking about - the oppressions of the African-Americans? What about all of the other peoples who were oppressed since the country was founded? Why single out the African-Americans? What about the Irish, the Jews, the Mexicans and the Chinese who were murdered by the thousands in California? Should not these ethnic groups be given preferential treatment? By the time we include all groups that have been discriminated against, there will be 10 or 20 of us left who don’t reap the rewards. But then wouldn’t that make Caucasians a minority in itself? Extrapolating on this point can go on and on, from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Affirmative Action Violates the Constitution

Regarding the Supreme Court rulings, I should point out that I am not a lawyer but I offer my own interpretation of affirmative action from a simple viewpoint as I’m just someone who can read the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, as it was intended for any American.

1. Affirmative Action negates fundamental concepts carefully spelled out by the Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these Truths to be self‑evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.....”.

If we afford certain individuals special treatment, we are violating the very principles of the Declaration of Independence. In addition, if we need to correct inequities within our society, this may be done by private individuals rejecting racial discrimination, by private individuals paying for advertising and education to negate the “red necks,” and by speaking out against the practice, and not by Government intervention. In other words, over time, society itself will eventually correct the inherent evils of man.

2. Affirmative Action is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Lets examine the Constitution.

Article IV, Section 2.

“The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities in the several States.”

Providing any individual special dispensation for lack of intelligence or plain old hard work violates this article. Placing low skilled peoples into higher education slots deprives another imminently more qualified candidate the opportunity to complete his or her education. Placing individuals who are unable to meet basic knowledge and intelligence standards into positions of authority in Government‑run agencies (Post Office, VA, etc.), only lowers the performance and morale within these organizations. People in these organizations will ask themselves, “why should I work hard ‑ I don’t receive any benefit.” Remove the motivational factors, and you will have Russia just prior to the downfall of the Evil Empire. As the Government gets larger and larger, more and more of these idiotic concepts will find acceptance by the bureaucrats.

3. Many immigrants to this country, the Italians, Chinese, European Jews and other races, who were unable to read or write the English language, encountered heavy‑handed discrimination in its worst form (lack of education and job opportunities and even death). These peoples were able, after a number of years, to assimilate into society via tireless work habits and self‑education. Why is it then necessary to afford natural‑born citizens or even immigrants an unfair advantage? The answer is, “IT IS NOT.”

4. We live in a capitalist society, including its many disadvantages and inequities. Although many other concepts have been tried, they have all failed the test, including various flavors of socialism including National Socialism (Nazis) and communism. Socialism has found some degree of success in smaller countries like Sweden with a relatively small homogenous population (less than 8 million) where the work ethic was very high in the population. Even in Communist China and Vietnam, with large population bases, they have recently experimented with fairly aggressive forms of capitalism. In addition, they are eliminating their hopelessly inadequate state‑owned industries. In the United States, there are ample opportunities for an individual from the most run‑down ghetto to achieve the highest form of education via the Internet, scholastic grants, Federal and state grants and job training programs, with good old hard work. Many of these options didn’t exist 30‑40 years ago. If a person works hard to obtain an education, and continues to apply the same principles to his/her work ethic, elite economic status is fully achievable, regardless of race, gender, or religion.

Stress Equality of Man – Not Affirmative Action

If we stop the constant press barrage about racism, even though the slightest inkling of racism still gets heavy press coverage, and start reinforcing the concept of equality, maybe racism will eventually disappear. I’m not interested in your pathetic theories for achieving racial harmony by spending my tax dollars or justifying new inviolate laws to achieve your cockamamie concepts. If you still have terrible guilt about the issue of slavery, don’t try and take my tax dollars because I’ll fight you every step of the way.

Two wrongs don’t make a right! Using racial preferences today to address inequities in the classroom or the workplace will only perpetuate more divisiveness in the future. It seems to me that we should revert back to the tried and true, “all men are created equal”. If we continually stress these principles in our classrooms and in our conversation and actions, this will be worth 100 times whatever affirmative action goals can theoretically be achieved.