Is Affirmative Action Ethical?
As
one who has been discriminated against, I find strawman arguments and tenuous
reasoning are used to support LaFollette’s (The Practice of Ethics) view that affirmative
action is ethical. There are so many
points of disagreement in his book that I can hardly list them all without
writing a major thesis on it. I will
give it a shot point by point. In fact,
this sort of touted high-level
reasoning is one of the main reasons that I have a healthy skepticism of intellectuals who possess a liberal point of view. I find
that they cherry pick their data while ignoring evidence that may go against
their assumptions.
While
arguing about discrimination, LaFollette argues about “Blacks have been
subjected to systemic discrimination over centuries; whites have not been”
(LaFollette, p. 72). Untrue. There were over 5 million whites captured and
taken into subsequent slavery by Muslims.
In Russia alone, the vast number of white slaves (nearly all Slavic peoples)
taken by invading Muslim armies led to the English word for “slave”. This slave trade was centered on the Crimean khanate
which was part of the Ottoman empire. “Described
by Christians as the ‘heathen giant who feeds on our blood,’ the khanate is
estimated to have enslaved and sold ‘like sheep’ some three million Slavs –
Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, and Ukrainians – between 1450 and 1783” (Ibrahim,
2018 p. 280). That doesn’t even account
for the remaining number of Western Europeans that were also taken into slavery. A few things need to be pondered about these
facts. First and foremost, all races on
our planet have been conquered and/or enslaved by other peoples, so to single
out American blacks as a unique experience is selective reasoning. Second, the timeline in which the enslavement
of white Europeans took place, lasted far longer than the number of years that
slavery existed as an institution in North America. Finally, the very same Muslims who were
enslaving white people of Europe also enslaved millions of Africans as
well. In fact, the Muslims were the main
clearinghouse (sellers) of slaves to the Americas.
LaFollette
than touches upon the white privilege
that has become popular with the political left. “The rich can harm the poor in a way and to a degree that the poor
cannot harm the rich” (LaFollette, P. 72).
The issue at hand is racism and not economic status. Plenty of whites are hurt by rich people
and/or organizations and can do nothing about it. I am not even going to cite a reference to
say that this point is wrong. I will
give an example from my family history that gives lie to the statement by
LaFollette that this is a racial issue.
It also debunks the ridiculous white privilege theory. My great-grandfather owned a business in
Flint, Michigan before the great depression.
It was in a busy commercial district.
It was a general store, had a restaurant in the back, and had gas pumps
in front of the establishment. When the
great depression hit, my great-grandfather had less than a year to pay off the business
loan. During one of the bank runs during
the depression, the bank called in his note and he was unable to pay the balance
of the loan and he lost his business to the bank. The banking laws have been changed since then
and it is illegal to call in loans that are being paid on time. I want LaFollette to explain how white privilege
or some sort of hidden financial advantage of being white protected my great-grandfather. My family never recovered financially, and we
grew up on the borderline between middle class and poor. Are there instances of wealthy families
passing wealth, assets, and opportunities to their children? Certainly.
Would a black family that is wealthy do the same? They can and they do.
There
is no such thing as white privilege. One
may think so if one is black and buys into the victimology mindset that is constantly peddled to young blacks by
the American left. It is to their
advantage that blacks remain at the bottom of society's totem pole. It ensures a sizable number of blacks voting
Democratic to fix their status. It will
never happen that way. The only way for
blacks to shake off the victimology stigma is to desert the described
“Democratic Plantation” and start embracing freedom and equality. Why
do blacks from the Caribbean seem to do well in our society? It is because they are embracing the freedom
opportunity that this country offers without the baggage of the victimology
mindset. With true freedom, unencumbered by meddling
government and left-wing race provocateurs, comes greater personal
responsibility for blacks. Suddenly,
they have to learn how to swim or drown.
It has been 45 years since President Nixon signed affirmative
action. There have been some positive
gains, but overall the positives do not outweigh the negatives. “Today, the statistics on black and white
inequality are so unchanging that they can be recited by rote: The black
unemployment rate holds steady at double the white unemployment rate; the
median net worth for black households is about 7 percent of white households;
annual per capita income for blacks is 62 cents for every dollar of per capita
income for whites” (Slate. February 10, 2014).
While I rarely agree with anything the Slate writers publish, this is a similar
comparison to a Consequentialist and a Deontologist coming to the same
conclusion about an ethical action but using different reasoning to arrive at
their positions. The Slate author is
saying that affirmative action isn’t working, but for different reasons that I think.[1] Slate is using the racist argument saying
that affirmative action isn’t resolving that, and therefore it doesn’t
work. I take the position of the golden
rule; “two wrongs do not make a right”.
Better deserving candidates for jobs or schools are denied simply
because they were born of the wrong
race.
I
am 1/8 Native American. My great-grandfather
on my father’s mother’s side of the family was a Frenchman from Quebec that
married a full-blooded Native American.
Subsequently they migrated into United States in the 1880s. I was researching my family history while I
was in high school. I had dreams of
getting “free” education and a leg up in the job market by claiming minority
status. My father told me that I was not
going to do so……ever! He told me that I
was going to make it in life based upon my character and my abilities, not upon
family ancestry. Taking my father’s
guidance, I always claimed Caucasian on job applications. I have been the victim of reverse discrimination multiple times during my life as a result of
this choice. Is that right? My life may have taken a quite different path
than what it has. Maybe I would have
ended up in an awesome job and become quite wealthy. I have struggled to progress from growing up
poor to a place where I can be considered upper middle class or “member of the
UMC” as Bob Seger sang about. With all
of that, I am happy that I chose the route that I took and haven’t had to have
others wonder whether I was deserving of my accomplishments, or whether I
achieved them due to a protected status.
Respectfully,
John Hescott
References:
Slate. (February 10, 2012). “The Massive Liberal Failure on Race Action” Retrieved from:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/features/2014/the_liberal_failure_on_race/affirmative_action_it_s_time_for_liberals_to_admit_it_isn_t_working.html#cx
Ibrahim, Raymond. (2018) Sword and Scimitar. New York: Da Capo Press, Hachette Book Group
[1]
Interestingly enough, (and possibly ironically!) after I wrote my comment that
I didn’t agree with Slate much and that I didn’t agree with the arguments
presented in their article, I found the following comment at the end of their
article. “I find the tone of this series
to be deeply annoying – ‘privileged white liberal discovers black people and
realizes history doesn't fit a tidy narrative!’
A lot of liberal white folks
don't live in a suburban bubble, and don't need the lesson, thanks” (LaFollette
Progressive).
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