Pro vs. Con: affirmative action is not necessary in 2006

By Kevin Hall
Collegian Reporter
October 4, 2006

There are some things that we don’t like to talk about, affirmative action being one of them. For some reason the topic seems to offend people. But if it takes putting some people off in order to achieve what I know is right, then to use a modern phrase, I’m all about it.

Originally a presidential decreee by President John F. Kennedy set up the framework in order to redress the many sins committed in the past against blacks, affirmative action has more than run its course – if it had any original course at all. For over 45 years, “white guilt” has plagued many on all sides of the political spectrum.

In my opinion, affirmative action may be the most degrading social policy since segregation. It inherently contains the same racist logic that emerges from segregation. However, this racism is hidden. It doesn’t come out and state that we are going to place you apart from those of a lighter skin tone. Affirmative action says we’ll help you, only because you can’t help yourself. It says you are not good enough to climb the ladder in the same way that everyone else before you has, because of the color of your skin.

This has been extended over time so as not to offend or omit any of the other groups which may not be able to make it on their own, such as women, Hispanics, Asians and minority religious affiliations, among others. Irish, German and Italian immigrants did pretty well by themselves without any help from affirmative action. If I was a minority of some sort, I would take it as an insult to my intelligence that the government does not think I am capable of succeeding by myself in life.

Unfortunately, these affirmative action policies have, in my view, ended up hurting those who they sought to help the most. For 45 years, the government has continually told African-Americans they can’t do it on their own. Many have looked past this, such as the often vilified Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. However, too many black Americans have constantly bought into the idea that the country owes them something.

Affirmative action has been taken too far. Our own La Salle University contains in its staff an affirmative action officer whose responsibility is to ensure affirmative action policies are carried out on campus. Along with that, there is a 91-page document detailing how affirmative action plans are to be carried out within the university.

In many other schools across the country, affirmative action methods are used to create a culturally-diverse student body. This is achieved, of course, by not accepting those applicants who have performed the best. Instead, universities lower standards in order to achieve an unachievable level of diversity that is “necessary” for a solid education.

If Americans truly wanted to look past race instead of continually dividing ourselves by a person’s skin color, they would follow the path that I have taken. In turn, it is a course which denies those who would separate us by race the opportunity to do so. On any questionnaire that asks about my race, including the U.S. Census, I have continually marked the “other” box, and written proudly “American.”

We should stop taking skin color or sex or any other objective factor into account when we are attempting to evaluate a person. Let’s judge people by their performance and as one famous American put it, “by the content of their character.”

hallk3@lasalle.edu