How Affirmative Action Hurts Those it's Meant to Help

Published on May 19, 2007 By Gideon MacLeish In Misc

Years ago, I believed that affirmative action, while wholly imperfect, was at least a good transition towards balancing the scales. As time goes by, I am rethinking that position.

A perfect example: Mike Tomlin, the new coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In their excellent article on Tomlin, SI touches on the infamous "Rooney Rule" that requires teams to consider minority candidates for coaching vacancies. SI said that Tomlin's hiring was NOT because of the Rooney Rule, and I believe them. Tomlin's resume is certainly that of a coach who deserves a chance to be a head coach in the NFL. No question about it. And he seems to be gaining the respect of many of his players.

The problem with programs like affirmative action or the Rooney Rule is that there are great coaches like Tomlin, or like Tony Dungy that also, incidentally happen to be people of color. And there are great CEO's, there are great doctors, there are great politicians who also happen to be people of color. That they are minorities is incidental to their greatness, their greatness is because of their strength of character. But as long as affirmative action programs remain, questions will remain.

When Denzel Washington won the Best Actor Oscar for "Training Day", the media fawned because a great black actor had gotten his due. I cheered too, but because a great actor had gotten his due. To call Denzel a black actor is to diminish him. It is to put a qualifier on that states he is not good enough, he cannot compete equally with actors of other races, when the truth is, you could put Denzel up against ANY actor in Hollywood, now, or in the past, and he could hold his own. He is not a "black actor", but an actor who happens to also be a person of color (pardon my un-pc-ness; I don't keep hip on the up to date lingo).

If Mike Tomlin doesn't deliver the playoffs right out of the gate with Pittsburgh, there will be questions. Questions about whether the Rooney Rule was put into play. And in my firmly held opinion those questions are invalid. But as long as ridiculous policies like the Rooney rule are put into play, those questions will be asked, whether we like it or not. We owe it to minorities to stop treating them like handicapped individuals who need a 50 meter headstart in an 800 meter race.

Comments

Dr Guy

on May 19, 2007

Sarah would disagree with you on Denzel. I once had a discussion with her on the subject, and she basically stated he does not have a great enough range of roles to qualify (she thought him good at his roles, but that he should branch out and try for roles outside of the "cop" ones).

I think those who hate AA the most, are those like Clarence Thomas, Walter E. Williams, and Thomas Sowell (to name a few) that have reached the top of their profession without it. And the race baiters (Sharpton and Jackson) hate them for that reason.

Ricree

on May 19, 2007

I agree with you in general. I think that there is enough of a problem that something aught to be done, but I am not convinced that affirmative action is really the method to go about it.

Besides the problems you mentioned, I think that there are a couple others. For one, there is no real good way to evaluate and deal with the question "what if it works?". Any time affirmative action programs are changed, there is a slow, awkward, and drawn out debate over the issue which may or may not result in any changes. Either it works or it doesn't, in either case it has to be done away with at some point, and I seriously doubt that people will be willing to just let it go once its outlived its usefullness.

Furthermore, these programs mostly pick and choose the recipient groups on a political basis. If someone is seriously disadvantaged, but not in one of the target groups, then they are at a double disadvantage.

Personally, I favor using economic criteria whenever possible. To my mind, someone who grew up in poverty has almost certainly had to work harder for the grades they get, and I think that it is fair to take something like this into account in things like college admissions and other similar situations.

As far as I can see, this idea would have a number of advantages over a traditional affirmative action program. For one thing, as I've already said, I think that it is better on a pure merit approach, since it good performance in bad circumstances is usually tougher than the same performance in good circumstances. Aside from that, something like this would be much more self regulating. Is one race being treated unfairly? If so, then it should show up in that group's economic status. In that case, this program would help them in proportion to their disadvantage so long as it existed. No need to worry about getting rid of the program once it has helped that group.

Of course, no program is perfect, and this one has drawbacks too. For one thing, it is not always easily applicable. In the cases you mentioned, like actors or coaches, this sort of program doesn't fit even remotely as well. However, in situations where it fits, such as college acceptance, I think that it is a much better alternative than traditional affirmative action programs.

cityguy

on May 20, 2007

Being African-American, I have mixed feelings on this. While I agree that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, most of the programs put in place get abused both by the minorities they are meant to help. I have seen grossly underqualified black people given a job to see them fail.

For the most part, programs in the 80s and 90s worked well. But they need to grow with the changing environment. I think black people are less likely to face the same racial scrutiny as they did a decade ago. But they are still more likely to come from poorer educational backgrounds.

I think the NFL rule is a great example. It was meant to get black coaches a shot at an interview that would not have otherwise got it. It's not preferential hiring and we are coming upon a time when black personnel are recieivng the same regard as all other NFL personnel. We are a long way from that in society as a whole but in the NFL it represents a corner that has been turned and perhaps the need to rethink the rule.

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