Today, minority groups including, but not limited to, blacks and women are disproportionately less wealthy than whites. Home ownership is even more disproportionate. College attendance rates have the same trend. These groups have been discriminated against throughout the history of the United States in ways that I, as a white male, can barely get my head around. What's wrong with affirmative action, a policy that aims to rectify these inequalities that surely are steeped in our history as a white and male dominated society?
What I find most troubling about the affirmative action debate is the lack of history found in the discussion. Affirmative action, coined by President Kennedy during the height of the civil rights movement, aims to redress historical injustices committed in America by a white majority against minority groups. History is at the center of affirmative action, and it should be recognized as such.
While the abolitionist movement in the United States - and indeed across a vast majority of our globe - served to enforce the foundational principle of our country that all men are created equal, it did much less to ensure that those who suffered the shackles of slavery would be placed on a truly equal footing. Ownership of land or a home, often the basis of a family's net worth, was few and far between for former slaves. As I had it explained to me during my experiences working for an NGO in Boston, we see the after effects of the lack of homeownership
even today. Black families and descendants of former slaves have had to work harder to provide for the previous generations - their parents and grandparents - because
in 1862 the Emancipation Proclamation released slaves from bondage but did not provide them with any form of financial security. They had to start from scratch. White counterparts, on the other hand, have mostly followed a trend whereby parents provide for their children because of a history of financial growth that is effectively a long head start.
Perhaps this is over-generalizing. I don't want to diminish institutional racism, nor do I want to suggest that all white families have substantial economic prosperity. In addition, affirmative action is aimed at other historically disadvantaged groups, specifically women and people with disabilities. The women's rights movement was just as important an historical accomplishment of an underrepresented political minority in our country. What I do want to suggest is that many times people miss the point: history matters. Each of these groups has a unique American history that is mostly shameful. That our country has come a long way in overturning some of the more despicable policies is not enough because American minorities are still statistically behind the majority in important things like economic security and education. Affirmative action began in the spirit of redressing our historical wrongs and, as such, should be encouraged in university admissions.
Our University does not have a quota system, nor should it. The Supreme Court has already ruled that quotas are unconstitutional, and I agree. What should occur is the placement of minority candidates in colleges based on their merit. What many institutions of learning, business, and government have interpreted affirmative action to mean, and what I agree with, is that when two candidates of equal merit are vying for the same position, the opportunity should be given to the minority person. Not only does this make for an easier choice between two equal applicants for a position, but it does not discriminate on the basis of merit, a common misinterpretation of affirmative action. Affirmative action produces a merit-based system whereby the possibility of racist determinations becomes less viable; it challenges the people to promote and accept diversity, and it provides for a redress of historical wrongs that contributes to racial inequalities today.
There seems to be some inherent value in diversity; knowing someone that may be identified as the "other" is a challenging and perhaps rewarding experience that broadens minds and can lead to wider acceptance. Boston College's mantra, "men and women for others," explicitly upholds this value, which is why affirmative action should be heralded as encouraging diversity on campus. In addition, by mandating a policy of affirmative action, Boston College will be upholding our duty to redress our nation's shameful past in helping minority students to achieve goals that their forebears could not have dreamed of accomplishing. This is not unfair. It's not discrimination. It's penitence, and it's helping to open our minds.
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