In a plethora of ways, the diversity agenda fails to deliver justice to the legacy of black Americans.
The original purpose of the implementation of affirmative action policies was to serve as a form of restitution for the mistreatment of generations of black Americans. Even after slavery and Jim Crow were over, it is proven that the economic standings of black families were still unequal to their white counterparts (you can read more about the effects on generational wealth by discrimination in my article, “What Conservatives Don’t Get About Reparations”). Despite initial intentions, policies based on gender and nationality popped up next. Before long, white women became the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action policies.
Women aren’t disadvantaged from past discrimination, yet they reap the modern benefits.
Laws preventing females from voting, going to work, owning land, etc, have no effect on the generational wealth or current privilege of women. They did not contribute to any alleged wealth disparity between the sexes. Laws preventing the same things on the basis of race did. Yet, women, primarily white women have affirmative action rules in place for them to get into universities and to get jobs. This takes away from the payback that the children of generations of abuse deserve.
In 2008, a young woman named Abigail Fisher was rejected from her dream school, UT Austin, with a GPA of 3.59 and SAT score of 1180. She sued the school, claiming that minorities who scored lower stole “her” spot at the university. It turned out that only 1 black student with a lower score was accepted over Fisher, but 42 white students with lower scores were accepted. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and it was decided that the policy was constitutional. Would the decision have been found that way if the main beneficiaries were actually the intended demographic?
Immigrants are the ones actually “taking the spots” meant to help American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS).
Should black people who came to this country after Jim Crow still receive the benefits? I would argue no, but affirmative action rules have since made room for different nationalities. One could make the argument that black immigrants also would face discrimination, but did they? No, not from the United States government. Caribbeans, Afro-Latinos, and Africans would have to go to the Europeans to see some form of restitution for their sins. It’s just not fair that aid intended for students and workers who may be the first to attend college would go to anyone else but them. This goes for non-black immigrant groups as well.
Do black people still need affirmative action?
In my humble opinion, they could still rightfully benefit from it until every generation impacted by segregation and discrimination is gone. Until then, it is clear to me that the government is once again taking the easy way out when it comes to repairing its relationship with ADOS. Allowing white people to be the largest beneficiary for no decent reason is very telling, and I don’t believe it to be an accident. Therefore, the current system of affirmative action is counterproductive and doesn’t help black Americans.
