Affirmative Action

I don't have a great problem with affirmative action. The continual mainstreaming of African-Americans is a positive value that has been created in the past 30 years. Those 30 years have seen enormous strides in the advancement of blacks, in the normalization of black participation so one doesn't even question it. One questions those who have a problem with it. There's always more that can be done. I do have a problem with musty, creaky policies that seem to do more bad than good. I have a lot of problems with lazy political thinking that wants to support the old policy rather than come up with something new and imaginative. The problems and needs never change but neither does the necessity to continually transform policy as one era supplants another.

When affirmative action came into being in the early 70's it was viewed as a mild remedy for an impossible situation; that is, what to do about the repression of African-Americans throughout American history. The thought at that time was, "America needs a stable, black middle-class, a professional class, that can provide a model for young blacks, as well as provide more dynamic in the black family." Very few people objected. The objections began when colleges and universities started promoting a more radical view of the African-American student. It became apparent that the last thing the academics wanted was a large, bourgeois African-American population, more interested in taxes, schools, protection for children, and investment in small business than "identity politics." That's the perception. Whether it's true or not is anyone's guess, but perception plays a huge role in politics.

Some began to ask, "where is the effort to build a black middle-class," in the midst of identity politics? The "identity" always had the tacit understanding that is was "anti" to the "system" they perceived had harmed them. How could anyone expect to take that attitude into the real world and work well and successfully?

So after awhile, affirmative action became a pure political play between the ideological wings. It began to resemble the old spoils system that corrupted in the mid-19th century. Even more ominous, it began to look like a new caste system built on new political myths. If a person is fully defined by their race, then the die is cast. How can I escape such a fabrication and live freely if I define myself as the fabrication has defined me? And why should I? I would certainly try to escape it if the fabrication had any power in the society or in gruops that I belonged to. And I would escape those who would want to impose that fabrication if the fabrication could be manipulated regardless of what I do as a free person.

It's a result of the identity politics of 30 years, even 35 years ago. It could only have made it this far in the hermetically-sealed campus. It was a kind of revenge of the intellectual class for not gaining the power they wanted in the aftermath of the 60's.

We think every effort should be made to mainstream the African-American population and increase their odds at success. The effort was too heavily weighted on the public policy side and not enough on the development-of-the- individual side. Now all the indivdual is equipted with, when he or she leaves campus, is a way to rationalize their first failures. At that moment life begins to look like a vicious cycle and the poor misfortunate person does not leap up to the next level. This happens to all people of course, but because of the politicalization of the African-American, they wear the hairshirt more often. And make no mistake about it. The hairshirt was manufactured by the new left, who easily absconded with the civil rights movement when it couldn't survive in the real world and had to move back to the campus.

Tax payers don't want colleges and universities to radicalize anyone but, rather, to send them all off into the happy hunting grounds of the middle-class. In fact, if this were happening now I don't think there'd be a great grousing about it. And, in truth, it's very difficult to argue against a situation that needs a remedy.

One problems is that the goal was lost sight of. The goal was not even to "diversify the campus." It's a better place for diversity but that was not the goal of affirmative action. The goal was to produce a generation of decent, bourgeouis black men and women, in good profesions who would provide the stability the African-American family needs. That was the purpose and, like all good things, was side-tracked by the radicals who were hungry for new representatives of their point of view. They would, along with women, be a new proletariat to spearhead fresh attacks on the "establishment," replacing the working-class who were seen as pro-establishment.

It serves as a lesson to policy makers: When you make your policy have an exit strategy in place because the political fortunes will change.

One could beat the university to death I suppose but, for being the smart guys, they acted very dumb in the last 30 years. They promoted the idea of the "victim," and politicized race and gender, and tried to rationalize it through very suspect philosophies; philosophies that were being abandoned by those who had fought and died for them, the moment they were taking hold on American campuses.

It's one of the more disgraceful periods of academic life. Of all the peoples in this society, the African-American needs to be taught to see him and herself as part of a large, real culture that wants that person to develop their potentials to the utmost degree. There is no advantage to anyone having a large black underclass. The society gains when the black person gains.

The historical record is clear enough on black experience in the US. To get to a point of trust any person, black or white, has to cross a threshold or two and it's not possible with the philosophy of victimization in place. At the first failure the victim has a perfect alibi. They need not do anything else. They fall back into the soft womb of the politics who would have them, use them, and not return any authentic resource.

Ending affirmative action isn't going to solve any problems. But there won't be any solutions forthcoming until you move these tired old policies out of the road and demand that the academics come up with something better.

The experienced person asks this question, "If families can not solve the problem of inequality, how can huge nations?" Equality is not the key. The key is connecting people to the organizing principles of the culture and encourging them to develop freely toward their goals. I am not equal to Bill Gates because he focused himself on his interests and reaped the reward. I am not equal to Michael Jordan because he focused on his marvelous talents and developed them and reaped his reward. On the other hand neither are equal to me in a variety of categories. It may not mean anything in the market but it prevents me from worshipping idols. The complex inequality that makes up this society is the result of desire, opportunity, talent, sacrifice, luck, imagination and a host of qualities that can't be guaranteed by public policy or wrenching private identities into political ones. The tragedy is that these qualities are worthless unless the person is connected to the organizing principles. And tragic even yet, some parts of the educational system have taught alienation as a badge of honor or as the authentic way of being in the world. This fantasy could only take place on the dole, so to speak. When the dole dries up and the political fortunes change, the illusion collapses. To see how all of this has ruined a generation of educators, scholars, and some of the students is disheartening.

Back to the melting pot, I suppose.

The other thing people forget is that, no matter how you slice it, one group feels very "victimized," and that is the lower middle-class whites. They were abandoned by the Democrats and picked up by the Republicans who deftly exploited their racial resentments. Resentments because of government policy that put needed resources into the mainstreaming of out groups. But their loyalty to the Republicans doesn't do anything for them because Republicans do not use the government to leverage poor and working people.

And before long they will find representation in the political world and affirmative action will be seen as the worst form of elitism, concocted by white liberals who desperately need to exert power somewhere or else they, too, will view themselves as the dreaded victim. And that would be too humiliating to bear.

Let go of the past. Bury the stupid myths concocted out of a red-hot vacumn 35 years ago. By not doing this, the progressives look like the true believers of an ancient religion too proud to change.

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