Last week I wrote “The Supreme Court: What Happened to Conservatives and Freedom?” on my blog in which I lamented the Supreme Court decision overturnng Affirmative Action and its negative decrease in freedom for private universities.
Several people responded and asked me questions about my post. I decided to write a follow up piece to further explain my reasoning.
Racial discrimination (the use of race or skin color to distinguish people) has generally been practiced in the United States to benefit some (usually white people) at the expense of others (people of color, especially African Americans). Centuries of slavery, Jim Crow laws, exclusion from elections, gerrymandering, “separate but equal” practices in education, exclusion from benefits of the G.I. Bill, Redlining, etc. have had horrible consequences for people of color. People like me (I am a white male of the upper middle class) have an unfair advantage in the race of life. We don’t all start at the same place. Through no effort on my part, I began the race far ahead of many others.
Racial quotas and affirmative action were a different kind of racial discrimination. They used the race factor to partially offset the horrific consequences of historical racism in our country. They partially compensated for the sins of our past. They partially narrowed the gap at the starting point. They partially leveled the playing field. People of color have made significant gains in education, earnings, political life, etc., but I still have an unfair advantage.
The overturning of Affirmative Action by the Supreme Court last month essentially claimed that racial equality has already been achieved in our nation, that the starting point is the same for all people. This disregard for history and reality is blindness at best and probably contains some hypocrisy as well.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it” claimed Chief Justice writing for the majority position. He was arguing that we should be “color blind”. Nevertheless, he wasn’t being totally truthful, because federally funded military academies (such as West Point and the Air Force Academy) are permitted to continue considering race in admissions decisions. The reason? A vague statement that military academies may have “potentially distinct interests”. Military leaders argue that our nation needs officers who have educational experience in racially diverse settings. Business and political leaders make similar arguments.
My God is not “color blind”. Neither should we be “color blind”. We should acknowledge how racial distinctions have been used in the past to widen the gap. Let us acknowledge racial distinctions now to narrow that gap. The soul-searching question for me, and for those like me, is whether we want to let go of our unfair advantages.
Lindy Scott 