Attacks on affirmative action are nothing new in the United States, and more often than not, those taking aim do so because their positions at the top of a historically unbalanced American social system are under attack.
Most of the time, they are white, conservative and male. Empty statements about competition and true equality notwithstanding, their rhetoric is self-serving. State Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, who this week called for a constitutional amendment banning affirmative action in Wisconsin, is no
exception.
Perhaps Grothman is simply ignorant, rather than malicious. His criticism is shallow to say the least, based on the contention that white men are sometimes passed over in favor of women and people of color for government jobs and university enrollment.
Of course, that is precisely the point of affirmative action: providing opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups to get their foot in the door of what has been a white, male-dominated club for centuries. Still, Grothman and other conservative opponents claim that if a white male has higher test scores or higher grades, for example, he should be rewarded over less qualified minorities, extenuating circumstances be damned.
In the short term, such a narrow argument makes some sense. After all, UW-Madison should not have to lower its standards in response to southern slavery, Jim Crow laws, and crippling urban poverty. Or so the right wing insists.
In the long term, however, if building an America based on real equality and social harmony is at all important to those Republicans so happy to wave the flag in support of foreign war and tax cuts, affirmative action is a social necessity. It would be nice if telling poor people to work harder and quit complaining was a sound economic strategy. Unfortunately for Republicans, it is not.
Centuries of bald-faced oppression have only recently given way to veiled racism, and people of color in the United States cannot simply get on board with the white upper class. An educational and occupational chasm persists largely along racial lines in this country, and poor kids cannot pay for many of the advantages that wealthy whites accumulate throughout their lives.
Abolishing a system that helps bring college degrees and well-paying jobs to communities where they are rare, and addressing the inequality that even those in West Bend cannot ignore, would be inexcusable.
Politicians like Grothman seem to
believe that in the future, white men will be a persecuted minority, unable to compete with unqualified rivals. But in truth, no American, regardless of color, dreams to be the recipient of government handouts.
Those who benefit from affirmative action by and large ask only for the chance to work as hard as they can and ultimately help not only themselves but also their families. In time, they can achieve the same things as white men with no help from the government. Slamming the door in their face now would be unfair.
