President Bush has the right words but the wrong policies on affirmative
action President Bush has the right words but the wrong policies on affirmative
action
Posted on Mon, Jan. 27, 2003
BY JOE BOLLETTIERI
Guest Columnist
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would consider two cases regarding affirmative action in admissions at the University of Michigan. The stakes in the cases are high. Over the years, differing decisions in lower courts regarding affirmative action have muddied the waters. As a result, many believe that by certifying these cases, the Court intends to make a clarifying pronouncement. In attempt to politicize the judicial process, President Bush announced that his administration will argue in a brief to the Supreme Court that Michigan's system should be struck down.
The president's position is in line with the plaintiffs' Ñ decisions, based on race, that favor minorities are no better than ones that favored the majority race. Discrimination is discrimination, and discrimination is wrong. The argument is appealing for both its perceived logic and righteousness, and the Constitution surely can be interpreted to support it. But the president's position is not logical and it is not right. The president's stance only offers a simplistic view by studying affirmative action in isolation, where it is semantically fragile.
The true analysis, however, must be an honest appraisal of affirmative action in its context. From there, the question reduces to whether reverse discrimination, which does occur, is justified? Affirmative action, in spirit and in the collective conscience of America, is a relationship between white America and black America. It is a prescribed remedy for an insidious, culturally undermining system that scarred our not-so-long-ago past. Forcefully brought to this country, where they continued to be treated as chattel, black people were ultimately freed by a government that nonetheless countenanced continued overt discrimination in most forms. Only in the second half of the past century was progress made at better than snail's pace.
Those are facts. As a step to reverse the effects of such a debilitating system, affirmative action in school admissions arrived. The role of education in any attempt to "level the playing field" is undeniable. For generations, lack of education had served as the ready-made pretext for not hiring minorities. Denied access to education meant denied access to opportunity, the hallmark of the American ideal. Thus, affirmative action is not, as the president conveniently views it, just isolated words on paper that hinge on the esoteric question of whether "diversity" on campus is a "compelling state interest." It is an acknowledgment of past wrongs and an attempt to right them.
That aim is decidedly more compelling than the incidental "reverse discrimination" that naturally results. Moreover, the hoped for results are occurring. In 1980, 7.9 percent of all African-American adults had completed four years of college; by 2000 that number was 17.8 percent. Thus, the fact that the remedy for the wrong comes in the same form of the wrong itself is merely ironic, it is not grounds for not pursuing the remedy. Bush spoke righteously when he publicly abandoned Trent Lott. Then, he said, "We will not and we must not rest until every person, of every race, believes in the promise of America.... We have work to do. Let's be honest about it. We got a lot of work to do in this country, because there are pockets of despair in America. There are men and women who doubt the American dream is meant for them."
That's exactly right. Sadly, however, in substantive matters, such as filing presidential briefs regarding the subtle constitutional issues at play, Bush lamely mouths the Republican Party line. In the end, his righteous words during the Trent Lott fallout find no place in policy. America should be proud of both attempting and partially succeeding at righting its wrongs. But there is a sense now that the once esteemed goal has become disposable. Why? Have we achieved racial equality? The president apparently knows we haven't.
Or is it worse Ñ is it that such pursuits are no longer valued? If the Supreme Court effectively scraps affirmative action, America should sense a failure. Life here is exponentially better now for minorities. Affirmative action is one reason for that. But as Bush noted, the job is not done. Access to higher education, still the true means to American success, should continue to be provided in a way that favors minority status.
Bollettieri (e-mail: Jbollettieri@hotmail.com) is a St. Paul teacher, writer and attorney.
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