COLUMN: Skin color should not provide punishments
Reading The Utah Statesman’s endorsement of the College Republican’s Affirmative Action Bake Sale was disappointing. We applaud the paper’s ability to acknowledge the “condescending” and “immature” nature of the event, and are saddened that the editors nonetheless agree with the point being made by the College Republicans. This agreement reveals a lack of knowledge about how affirmative action policies came to be and how they currently operate, as well as the social and political context in which we live in the present-day United States.
The Statesman’s contention that institutions use quotas as a matter of course is incorrect. The recent affirmative action cases debated in the Supreme Court clarify that the practice of using quotas is unacceptable. A closer examination of the Michigan cases and prior cases (e.g., Bakke) reveal an interesting trend: Anti-affirmative action cases are often brought about by white students who did not achieve entrance into academic programs when competing with other white students. Their arguments go something like this: “I may not have been as good as the white students that got in, but I’m as good as the ethnic minorities that did.” The lawsuits serve to highlight an ignorance of the complex nature of our social system and the role it, and the individuals within it, play in creating inequality across gender and racial/ethnic lines (e.g., in-group preference, test bias, unequal valuing of skills).
In our opinion we are quite removed from Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that people be “judged by the content of their character.” Indeed King’s famous speech was not an inspirational speech for peace. King was leading a call to arms; “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity … the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land so we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.” Unfortunately, decades later, we still struggle as a society to be fully enfranchised.
Perhaps affirmative action as it presently exists is not the best imaginable solution. The ideal solution would include a plan to provide equal access to quality primary and secondary education for all, regardless of color. At present, the ill effects of unequal access are coupled with broader economic trends, such as deindustrialization, which have led to a downward spiral in both the social infrastructure of our cities, and a diminution of the incomes of urban low-income residents. This decline has then compromised children’s access to quality healthcare and nutrition, for example. In the name of meritocracy, we then expect such children to compete with children raised in suburbs.
Calling for the elimination of affirmative action without proposing a feasible alternative for achieving goals of equal representation reveals a lack of understanding among the very people who have had the most opportunity – e.g., through higher education – to achieve a broad recognition of the causes and solutions for enduring inequalities. It is unfortunate that The Statesman has contributed to the discourse that can make USU’s students of color and women feel so unwelcome and undeserving of their achievements.
Melanie Domenech RodrÃguez is a professor in psychology. Her co-author Thomas Pedroni is a professor in secondary education. Comments can be sent to mdr88@cc.usu.edu.