It’s odd to me that everyone on the Left, intellectuals included, provides apologetics and even defenses for the policy of affirmative action. It confuses me because the Left prides itself on equality, yet contradicts itself with this policy. How can you promote equality by being prejudiced against whites and Asians? How can you promote equality by making it considerably easier for blacks and women?
The problem of affirmative action lies in its initial goal, which is some sort of ‘retributive justice’ for the injustices of the past. Who measures these things? Who measures the level of ‘oppression’ received during slavery and Jim Crow, or the level of ‘oppression’ before gender equality? Who determines the party’s ability to receive reparations such as this? The arbitrariness of the program not only divides us further, but makes it clear that the Left’s intention is not to help people as much as control their freedoms: think on this, why would a government program be prejudiced towards one group and thereby against another? How can a government be tasked with such morally heavy duties in the first place? Are we to believe that our own government must deprive whites and Asians, especially men, of certain freedoms, simply because we must make room for the others?
I say ‘deprive’ because I make the assumption that whites and Asians must by default work harder once affirmative action is enforced. If we are admitting more black students, Latino students, and female students, the assumption is that fewer white, Asian, and male students are being admitted into college all across the country. This also makes the assumption that whites, Asians, and men have special privileges that place them far above the affirmative action groups, while the affirmative action groups don’t have said privileges. Those privileges include… nothing? Here’s why this argument falls apart quickly. To say that you deserve special admission because you’re ‘black’ discredits your personal story as an individual, as part of a particular family and a particular neighborhood, because your admission status is based upon your general status of ‘black’. This means, then, that your reparations are given to you even if you’re rich, even if your parents are successful, even if you’re an established American family with American roots. Let’s assume, then, that the most damaged group as a result of this policy is a poor Asian male. The poor Asian male gets nothing for being poor, nothing for being Asian (rarely do I see scholarships for being of an Asian background, though they do exist), and certainly nothing for being male – so now, he has to work much harder than the rich black male to get into the same Ivy League school.
Affirmative Action is Racist and Divisive
The problem of affirmative action lies in its initial goal, which is some sort of ‘retributive justice’ for the injustices of the past. Who measures these things? Who measures the level of ‘oppression’ received during slavery and Jim Crow, or the level of ‘oppression’ before gender equality? Who determines the party’s ability to receive reparations such as this? The arbitrariness of the program not only divides us further, but makes it clear that the Left’s intention is not to help people as much as control their freedoms: think on this, why would a government program be prejudiced towards one group and thereby against another? How can a government be tasked with such morally heavy duties in the first place? Are we to believe that our own government must deprive whites and Asians, especially men, of certain freedoms, simply because we must make room for the others?
I say ‘deprive’ because I make the assumption that whites and Asians must by default work harder once affirmative action is enforced. If we are admitting more black students, Latino students, and female students, the assumption is that fewer white, Asian, and male students are being admitted into college all across the country. This also makes the assumption that whites, Asians, and men have special privileges that place them far above the affirmative action groups, while the affirmative action groups don’t have said privileges. Those privileges include… nothing? Here’s why this argument falls apart quickly. To say that you deserve special admission because you’re ‘black’ discredits your personal story as an individual, as part of a particular family and a particular neighborhood, because your admission status is based upon your general status of ‘black’. This means, then, that your reparations are given to you even if you’re rich, even if your parents are successful, even if you’re an established American family with American roots. Let’s assume, then, that the most damaged group as a result of this policy is a poor Asian male. The poor Asian male gets nothing for being poor, nothing for being Asian (rarely do I see scholarships for being of an Asian background, though they do exist), and certainly nothing for being male – so now, he has to work much harder than the rich black male to get into the same Ivy League school.
Affirmative Action is Racist and Divisive
