Dumbfounded, I don't know where to start with this other than this ill-considered comment by someone from my class regarding a fairly old essay, "Social Change Education: Context Matters," by Kathryn Choules:
I am not sure how social justice is something positive. It fosters a workforce that suggests inferiority and suggests a person protected by affirmative action does not have the ability to compete on his or her own terms. It suggest (sic) preferential treatment which is unfair. Affirmative action takes away merit and in a way undermines the individual by not allowing the individual to reflect on their own competence but rather blame it on social discrimination. I think the best way to help individuals is to motivate and educate. Affirmative action is a political demoralizer (sic) and it is harmful to those who are at a disadvantage in the first place.
Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone, responding,
You make some interesting remarks, Linda. However, I'd like to see evidence for what you've said "... social justice ... fosters a workforce that suggests inferiority ..." doesn't appear to supported by any research that I'm aware of, it just seems like opinion. How is "inferiority" suggested when a person is given the opportunity to work and prove their worth outside a system skewed towards a privileged race and class?" (I follow that up, later).
As well, when you add that social justice, "... suggests a person protected by affirmative action does not have the ability to compete on his or her own terms," I am also unaware of any social research to back that claim up. However, you equate "social justice" with "affirmative action" and the two are not the same thing (although AA can be one agenda of an overall social justice scheme); the two are not synonymous.
You also say, "Affirmative action takes away merit...," but you don't explain how merit is taken away by AA. Again, I'd like to see the evidence. Likewise, when you say, AA "... undermines the individual by not allowing the individual to reflect on their own competence but rather blame it on social discrimination," you fail to follow up your words with proof. If it "undermines the individual," why have so many succeeded as a result of it? Don't those people feel empowered rather than undermined? Additionally, are you saying that discrimination has had no effect on racial disparity and economic opportunities? If so, you're arguing that some races are inferior and that would be an interesting statement, especially in this class.
Finally, your statement, "Affirmative action is a political demoralizer (sic) and it is harmful to those who are at a disadvantage in the first place," is made without any support but appears to be just an opinion.
I'd really like you to read my "Affirmative Action," post and make your own observations regarding my stance and the supporting references I use for my statements.
That post is below the fold:
Is affirmative action necessary in today's society? Absolutely. Not only has the unemployment rate for blacks been consistently double that of whites, according to the Pew Research Center, but the wealth gap between whites and non-whites continues to widen, with the New York Times reporting last year that, "Before the recession, non-Hispanic white families, on average, were about four times as wealthy as nonwhite families, according to the Urban Institutes's analysis of Federal Reserve data. By 2010, whites were about six times as wealthy."
However, it is apparent that affirmative action works due to evidence of university enrollment, where affirmative action has been aggressively pursued and implemented. According to a National Science Foundation report released last year, "(T)he percentages for blacks and Hispanics are projected to increase from 14% and 12% respectively, to 15% for both groups" for projected university enrollments by 2019, based on enrollment trends tracked since 2007.
As Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy said last year, "(I)t is not enough simply to end racist mistreatment. Reasonable efforts to rectify the negative legacy of past wrongs are also morally required." Although pundits and politicians have opined that, with the election of President Barack Obama, we live in a so-called, "post-racial society," that view is not just ill-informed but a denial that there is still much progress to be made to not just level the playing field and insure true equality but to repair the far-reaching wreckage of America's racist past (and, to some degree, present).
Actually, I kind of felt sorry for her. Not because her argument was without substance (a given, pretty much) but because it felt as though she was mostly parroting talking points she heard from her pastor, who had taken them from Fox News or Newsmax and, prima facie, lacks the kind of intellectual curiosity that makes life so vibrant, so incredible, so fascinating.
It's easy to caricature our Right-wing counterparts as racist caricatures and, unfortunately, those conceits are largely accurate. However, as an atheist with Buddhist tendencies, my heart breaks for them and their apparent incapacity to demand evidence from so-called authorities. When told, "The sky s green," they respond, "It sure is, I can see that" and then tell you all about it while sharing a line to the register at Costco.
In the line at Costco, my response is always, "I hear what you're telling me. Is there real evidence for that or is that something you were just told?" I have to say, it's the quickest way to turn that spigot off.
As irony has it, the spigot turn off to the right. The water flows when it turns to the left.
It is 2014, isn't it? Evidence indicates that's so. Turn on the water while we still have some.
~~~ As always, this post originated at my own blog, The Firebird Suite, though made better for Kossacks! ~~~