The Time Has Come - the Time to End Affirmative Action

The Time Has Come:

The Time to End Affirmative Action

By

October 25, 2004

Today we live in America in the 21st Century. We have witnessed dreams come true brought from our new science and technology. We have created engineering wonders and medical miracles that blur the line between life and death. It is truly a fantastic time and place to live and we are. However, in this "land of the free" and "home of the brave" that was founded on the premise set forth from our founding fathers in the birth cry of our nation, Declaration of Independence, that "All men are created equal", our legislation does not reflect that. Our court systems and our businesses are overrun with by legislation that is discriminatory itself, but its intent is to do just the opposite: prevent discrimination and prejudices. That legislation is Affirmative Action. The result of Affirmative action is continued unrest and resentment against the races and genders, and after forty years of practice. Affirmative Action never allows us to but the mistakes of our past behind us, rather it continues to stir issues of race to the surface and in the center of our mind. One can not move forward when focused on the past.

Now to be clear, I am not a racist. I truly believe in the founding ideals of Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I believe all individuals are created equal. Why then, if this is true, due we need additional legislation ensure equal rights to just some. To me this whispers of the line from Animal Farm "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others." If actually thought about Affirmative Action stands and condescends to the Declaration of Independence. It has already been established that all individual are equal, but now Affirmative Action makes certain minorities more equal than others. Now obviously, I do not favor legislation denying anyone rights based on irrelevant characteristics like race or gender. However, I also no not favor legislation reinforcing, emphasizing, or elevating, the rights of any individual over that of another, especially if a founding principal of this nation was the equality of all. I believe that if legislation protecting the rights of the individual is necessary, said legislation should be written and applied across the board to all citizens in the land and not targeted to protect specific races or genders.

Nor am I naive. I will be the first to admit that slavery was wrong. It was an atrocious mistake of our early nation. An early step away from that, segregation through concepts of "separate by equal", was also wrong. I will not try to defend them for a moment, but I also feel that the time has come for the United States government to cease apologizing for its mistakes. Again, one can not move forward when focused on the past. Men like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, were needed and their courage and actions are to be commended and remembered. I agree with him when he said, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." That is a dream I believe in as well. I feel that character, aptitude, intelligence, ability all should be what we judge and individual on, but forty years after these words have been spoken we are still focused on the color and gender of the person. I submit that where once we promoted because and individual was a white male, which was wrong, now we overlook them, often due to fear of litigation, which is equally wrong. It is discrimination either way you look at it when you look at color, so I suggest that we simply don't look at it.

I will admit that, at the time of Dr. King, Affirmative Action was most likely the best solution to the problem, but it is my firmest belief that the time for Affirmative Action, has passed. Why do I say this? Well let us look at something that would be incredibly hard to be bias with, the US Census. The 1999 Census showed that "only 9.6 percent of black children living in traditional two-parent families" actually lived in poverty (Pomeroy). Comparatively, only "6.8 percent of white kids in two parent families lived in poverty. "(Pomeroy). If we remove the father, the statistics change but in my opinion, not drastically. We see that 47 % of children with a single black mother are in poverty, but 32% of white children are with their single mother are right there with them (Pomeroy). So contrary to former First Lady, now Senator Hillary Clinton, it does not seem to take a village as much as it takes a family. When I first read these statistics two thoughts crossed my mind. This drastically shows how important a two parent household is to a healthy family, regardless of race, and how important it especially is to the children. Also you can tell the gulf between the two has been reduced to nominal.

Next let us actually look at education. Our own text book cites,"78.5 percent of blacks in 2000 had completed high school or more, compared with 85 percent of whites. Thus, blacks have almost reached parity with whites in median years of schooling completed. Also, today there is only a slight difference in the high school dropout rate for blacks and whites (Marger 282 cited from U.S. Census Bureau.)

As cited from our text Affirmative Action was "intended to advance the economic and education achievement of the minorities that had most severely and consistently victimized by past discrimination." This definition alone Affirmative Action labels the minorities it seeks to help as "victims," thus the majority is "giving them a hand up" in condescension. I am not the only one to feel this way. I echo Al Ng when he wrote, "It is racist and sexist to say that I need a helping hand because of the color of my skin or because of my gender. It is racist to say that because I am a minority, I can't attain the American dream on my own." When one talks to a successful minority individual often they themselves are against Affirmative Action because it cheapens their achievements. Yes, they got the promotion, but how much did Affirmative Action factor in on the decision. Also this kind of action can go to lower the self esteem of the protected individuals. One can easily see the case in which an intelligent individual