Affirmative Action is Negative

by Anonymous

First, let me start off by saying that I'm not racist. That statement has nothing to do with what I'm about to say, but I thought it would be an important thing to bring up before I continued discussing such a racially charged issue.

Affirmative action is the practice of giving preferential treatment to minorities in order to address certain "social inequalities" and help eliminate racism. This is usually achieved through governmental imposed quotas for either hiring (in businesses) or admissions (in colleges). I wanted to make a few arguments against this practice that selects equally qualified (usually) minorities over white people such as myself. Again, I don't hate people of other races or ethnicities.

1. A color blind society needs color blind policies.
If a level playing field is what we truly want to achieve then we need policies that reflect that. Two wrongs do not make a right. Unless you can show me something to prove that minorities (like black people) face financial and educational disadvantages brought about by a unique history of institutionalized racism, I'm sticking to my guns. Discriminating against white people doesn't do anything but breed more racism.

This may be a bit of a non sequitur, but I do actually have a black friend.

Clearly all things being equal, a black man should have just as easy of a time as a white man achieving success. The idea of making sure that a certain racial group isn't disproportionately poor doesn't help solve racism at all. This also bring me to my second point.

2. People don't respect individuals who aren't self made.
I am a self made man and people respect me for that. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the helping hand that my parents gave me when paying for my boarding school and college. But I'm the one who worked with my private tutor every night to make sure that I made the grade. The only one to credit for my incredible successes or to blame for any minor failures is Michael Gregory Steele.

If minorities get where they are because of affirmative action, people won't respect them. It's not as if getting into a profession that society respects is enough. Look at George W. Bush, a man in the most respected of professions, President of the United States. Would you respect him as much if he received some sort of preferential treatment to get where he is, I think not.

Not to go off on a tangent, but I wanted to bring up the fact that I often go out of my way to be friendly and make conversation with my Hispanic gardener.

My conclusion is simple, affirmative action is wrongheaded and does nothing to solve the problem of racism -- And also, I'm not a bigoted moron.