Editor,
Affirmative action is in the news once again. Conservatives are everywhere in the media telling us how affirmative action is bad for the United States. And, the conservative spins are quite problematic. Let's take at two of the more common ones.
Spin #1: "Affirmative action discriminates against whites." If this were true, then it should bear out in employment data. Such is not the case. There is no evidence that whites as a group have experienced diminished levels of economic status. In fact, the opposite is true. Whites as a group are doing better since the implementation of affirmative action.
It's interesting that when people of color make claims of widespread racial discrimination, as whites are now making, the first thing we whites ask for is "scientific proof." So, it's revealing that scientific proof about "reverse racism" against whites is nowhere to be seen, as if we whites should be taken at our anecdotal word. Would somebody please show me a table or a regression analysis?
Moreover, the strangest fact about affirmative action is that it has helped whites more than people of color. Consider that gender is a major component of affirmative action. As a result, no group has benefited more than white women. And given that white women are more likely to be associated with white families, one could reasonably argue that whites have been the main beneficiaries of affirmative action.
White women certainly deserve to benefit because they have been historically oppressed by white patriarchy, but I don't think anyone expected affirmative action to benefit whites more than others. It simply wasn't the intent.
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Spin #2: "Affirmative action places a stigma on students of color, so removing affirmative action would remove the stigma."
Now, let me get this straight. A white student sees a Chicana student in a freshman chemistry class and thinks, "She doesn't deserve to be here because she's here on affirmative action." So, according to the conservative argument, we should get rid of affirmative action rather than taking the responsibility to change the racist mindsets of students who think like this.
In other words, it suggests that we should accommodate the racist rather than those who are his object. That is some unbelievable, yet quite revealing, logic.
Affirmative action is an important policy that needs both support and reform. But the changes needed are not the ones put forth by conservatives. Instead, affirmative action needs to be weighed even more heavily towards poor and working-class people of color.
It should be given more resources and legislative support for vigorous enforcement, as the Nixon administration wrote the laws so as to be nearly unenforceable. And universities and businesses should have to achieve real outcomes.
Currently, they are allowed to focus on the process of hiring and admissions, which are imbued with racist perspectives and practices, without having to produce significant results.
Of course, they also should be given the legal, human, and financial resources to do so and be held accountable.
Ricky Lee Allen
UNM faculty
