Just Say Yes to Affirmative Action Just Say Yes to Affirmative Action
By Judy Mann
The Washington Post, Friday , October 20, 2000 ; Page C11
Well, we know now that both Vice President Gore and Gov. George W. Bush are against quotas. Since quotas are illegal, the presidential candidates' positions on them are irrelevant--a red herring, as Gore concisely put it. Bush said he wanted a diverse administration--no shocker there, you'd hardly expect a presidential candidate to say: "I'm a white male, I think we're the best, and I'm going to have everyone in my administration be a white male." Even the Republicans are long past that. But then he started talking about "affirmative access" and cited as an example a law he got passed that would automatically admit students who are in the top 10 percent of their class to Texas's institutions of higher learning. He claimed the universities were now more diverse.
Gore was far more forthright on this point. He said that he was for affirmative action and that Bush was against it, and then he defined it: "Affirmative action means that you take extra steps to acknowledge the history of discrimination and injustice and prejudice, and bring all people into the American dream because it helps everybody, not just those who are directly benefited." Affirmative action is not preferential treatment for minorities. The greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action plans have been women, who make up more than half of the population. What affirmative action has done has been to force universities and employers to open up the pool of people they are going to admit, hire, promote or give contracts to so that everyone, not just white males, has a shot.
A critical ruling involving affirmative action in higher education came in the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The court found that the "attainment of a diverse student body . . . clearly is a constitutionally permissible goal of an institution of higher education," that it promotes an atmosphere of "speculation, experiment and creation" that is essential to quality higher education. The court found that the pursuit of diversity in higher education is a compelling state interest and that institutions of higher learning must be able to prepare students to thrive in an increasingly diverse environment. The court ruled that these institutions must be able to use "competitive consideration of race and ethnic origin" in pursuit of a diverse student body.
There is no question that affirmative action policies such as these have caused hurt feelings, mainly among white males who feel that they are no longer playing on a level field. Affirmative action continues to come under attack both politically and in the courts. One of the latest moves against it comes in a case brought by three white applicants to the University of Michigan who claim that the university unconstitutionally uses race as a factor in admissions to the undergraduate College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and to the university's law school. The law school case is scheduled to go to trial in January.
Meanwhile, a remarkable event occurred this week that is going to heighten the importance of the Michigan case. Twenty of America's biggest corporations have filed a "friends of the court" brief in support of the university's admissions policies. Among the companies are Michigan-based Steelcase, which markets office furniture and equipment throughout the world, along with 3M, Kellogg, Eastman Kodak, General Mills, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, TRW, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly. All of the companies recruit at Michigan or similar institutions. All are global enterprises and have an enormous stake in having a diversified workforce that can do business around the world.
All have ties to Michigan corporations and customers. The amici curiae brief argues that "racial and ethnic diversity in institutions of higher education is vital to amici's efforts to hire and maintain a diverse workforce, and to employ individuals of all backgrounds who have been educated in a diverse environment. Such a talented workforce is important to amici's continued success in the global marketplace." The brief says that these enterprises have made substantial investment in developing a diversified workforce by participating in joint initiatives with universities, providing underrepresented minority students with substantial financial assistance and summer internships, by recruiting and mentoring, and by partnering with chapters of national minority professional organizations.
Two years after the Bakke decision, the 1980 Census found that minorities made up 20 percent of the population. The most recent estimate, for 1999, is that minorities made up 28 percent of the population. Their combined spending power in the United States is $600 billion annually, according to the brief. "The individuals who run and staff the amici corporations must be able to understand, learn from, collaborate with, and design products and services for clientele and associates from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds," because they serve an increasingly diverse population in the United States and around the world.
Bush may not understand what affirmative action is, but many of America's largest and best-known companies do. (General Motors has also filed a brief supporting the university.) They understand that if they want to work with and market to the widest customer base possible, they have to have highly educated personnel from the widest cultural, ethnic and racial base possible. They understand that you don't get rich by selling to the rich. You get rich by selling to everyone. Affirmative action is not only the right thing to support. It is essential to successful businesses as well.
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