Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Affirmative Action Is Not All Black and White


No blacks here.  Darkies drink at the other fountain.  We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone –especially blacks. And on and on it went – and in some cases still does.

Discrimination.  Alienation. Segregation. They were all the words that America’s racially-charged social structure came to be called; but taking a group of people and drawing a line around them and saying, “You don’t belong here or you can’t go here and do this or that”,  well,  it was too much for the American people to stand.

End discrimination based on race.  We yelled it in the 60’s.  We marched for it.  We voted for it.  We sent politicians to Washington to make sure discrimination was cleansed from America.  It wasn’t the way of our land. Every citizen had an equal chance.  All men created equal. Weren’t those the words Jefferson penned to bring us all to realize that America’s opportunities were for every citizen? That’s what we wanted: everyone on equal footing.  And we almost got it.

Except.

Now there’s another form of discrimination in the country. And it, too is based on race.  Sometimes it goes against the black student.  Sometimes against the Hispanic or Asian. And yes, in growing numbers, it has been used against white students.  It is called reversed discrimination. Oh to be sure, the institutions that employee it do not call it that.  They used the term affirmative action.

But even with the glitzy name of affirmative action, it still equates to discrimination based on race.

I know, you are thinking– what is this liberal stalwart doing taking that side?  I happened to believe affirmative action is wrong for America now.  We do have equal footing.  We have the opportunity regardless of race, religion and social status to do anything anywhere in the country (maybe with the exception of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, but they may never come around.)

The U.S, Supreme Court has agreed yesterday to take up the case of Abigail Fisher versus the University of Texas.  That’s UT as in Burnt Orange Longhorns – my alma mater. Heaven be damned I ever rooted against my beloved UT.  But on this one I will.  I think they are wrong in their denying a student a seat at the university because her (or his) race doesn’t qualify for their percentages.

That is exactly how we kept black students out for so long.  So now we’re going to turn it on white students or Hispanic students, because we have to make a mathematical formula to suit every race? 

I don’t think so. 

I know many or my friends will take the other side in this argument.  And I welcome them to. Open discourse on this matter is good. But the one card that can’t be played back at this is the race card.  Because Ms. Fisher was denied her entrance based on race. And if you are going to discriminate against one on race, then we all have lost the race issue.

The money is on this ruling being overturned in the favor of Ms. Fisher. I’m going to guess 5-4. (Now how did I ever come up with that number?)  And that means I will for the first time in history agree with Justice Roberts and his cronies about something. But then I am pre-judging what they will do.

Who knows, maybe they will surprise me.  Maybe they will say discrimination based on race is fine. In fact, the more I think about the better chance I think we could see that – especially from this court.

Weird, huh?







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