“To abandon affirmative action is to say there is nothing more to be done about discrimination.”
-Coretta Scott King
How do the words above resonate with you?
Pause here for a moment and free yourself from distractions:
Take a deep breath in... exhale slowly... deep breath in... exhale slowly... deep breath in... exhale slowly... calm your mind and be present...
It is impossible to talk about race, racial discrimination, and the system of oppression in this country with out addressing affirmative action.
What is your understanding of affirmative action?
...think about that for a moment...?
*Affirmative action originally refers to a set of policies and practices preventing discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origins, now often refers policies positively supporting members of disadvantaged or underrepresented groups that have previously suffered discrimination in areas such as education, employment and housing. Historically and internationally, support for affirmative action has sought to achieve goals such as bridging inequalities in employment and pay, increasing access to education, promoting diversity, and redressing apparent past wrongs, harms, or hindrances.
How do you feel about affirmative action?
...opposed to it, indifferent...feel it's necessary...
Depending on who you speak to, affirmative action can be viewed as outdated, no longer needed, reverse-racism, racist against white people, while others see it as necessary, effective in fighting discrimination, leveling the playing field for people of color.
What impact has affirmative action had on your educational journey?
...think about that for a moment... grade school... high school... college... post college...
How has affirmative action affected you professionally?
... has it opened up opportunities, disqualified you from some......spend some time here...
Ijeoma Oluo, in the book So You Want To Talk About Race, presents these arguments why affirmative action is still very necessary:
Argument 1: We don’t need affirmative action because society isn’t as racist or sexist as it used to be. Particularly in our employment and education sectors, the effects of systemic racism and sexism can not be ignored.
Employment:
White women make only 82 cents for every white man’s dollar
Black woman only earn 65 cents for every white man’s dollar
Hispanic women 58 cents for every white man’s dollar.
Black men 73 cents for every white man’s dollar
Hispanic men 69 cents for white man’s dollar.
Education:
Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended from school, starting as early as preschool.
16 percent of Black students, 7 percent of Hispanic students are suspended each year compared to 5 percent of white students.
While the suspension rate of white students has remained steady for over 30 years, the suspension rate for black students has tripled.
Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in the vast majority of colleges and universities by 20 percent.
A University of Washington study shows that enrollment of minority students drops 23 percent when schools enact an affirmative action ban.
Only 2 colleges in the US with affirmative action bans have representational enrollment of Black students, and only one has representational enrollment of Hispanic students.
Argument 2: If an employer is racist or sexist, you can just sue them.
The employer can make up just about any excuse for why they did not hire someone, promote someone, or fired someone.
Unless you can prove malice, unless there is a paper trail of racism, or sexism, it’s difficult to get a judge to find in your favor.
Argument 3: Affirmative action teaches people of color and women that they don’t have to work as hard as white men.
The majority of affirmative action goals aim for a representative number of people of color and women.
The goal is equal opportunity for female applicants and applicants of color.
Why would a representational number of people of color be so much less competitive than a representational number of white people? ...something to think about...
Argument 4: Affirmative action is unfair to white men because it causes them to loose opportunities to less qualified women and people of color. We see the jobs and education disparities across gender and color lines...
Remember these are representational goals, of which women and people of color fall far short.
When you say a representational number of women or people of color cut out more deserving white men you are saying: Women and people of color deserve to be less represented in our schools and companies, and white men deserve to be the over represented majority.
Either you believe people of color and women are less intelligent, less hard working, less talented than white men or you believe there are systemic issues keeping women and people of color from being hired into jobs, promoted, paid a fair wage, and accepted into college.
Argument 5: Affirmative action doesn’t work. Simply not true.
Affirmative action has been one of the most successful programs for helping combat the end-effects of racial discrimination in education and employment that we’ve tried.
Multiple studies have shown affirmative action programs increased the percentage of people of color in jobs in the public sector and drastically increased the number of people of color in colleges and universities.
The argument against affirmative action that Oluo and many others support is when we view affirmative action as “enough” it can be detrimental to the fight for racial justice.
“...Without systemic change and efforts to battle the myriad of ways systemic racism impacts people of color... our efforts at ending systemic racial oppression will fail...”
How have your views of affirmative action changed?
What are you willing to do to continue the fight to end systemic racial oppression in this country?
Don’t miss your opportunity! Be intentional, encourage others to do the same and watch what happens.
You got this!
Coach Tavia
#Learnandgrow, #leadbyexample, #leverageyourprivilege, #responsibility, #intention, #focus, #justdoit, #levelup, #shareyourgifts, #ittakescourage, #leadershipdevelopment, #leadershipcoach, #lifecoach, #equalopportunity, #leveltheplayingfield, #letsgo
*Stats and information referenced from New York Times Bestseller: So You Want To Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
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