“Affirmative action had its place.” Some are determined to keep that sentence in the past tense.
On July 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against public school districts using race as a factor in assigning students to schools. See story.
The ruling prohibits affirmative action in K-12 schools, but expressly allows it in higher education. However, socioeconomic factors and prejudices that necessitate the policy in higher education are no less relevant for younger students and have greater effect, as younger students are still developing the views and habits that will mold their lives.
Part of the reasoning in the decision is that race-based school assignment is unconstitutional. How much sense does it rely on a document written before the civil rights movement and before slavery was abolished when judging an issue of race?
Let’s cut through any accusatory semantics and face the core issues: persistent, often overlooked subtle racism, and discontent with a segregated culture.
There is an argument against affirmative action that it can lead to black or Asian applicants who are equally qualified to white applicants to be admitted to schools (or receive job offers) more often. What comes to mind is an anecdote that several honors students from the same high school applied to similar universities, with only the black individual among these friends being accepted to an Ivy League institution. Let’s acknowledge this concept for its consideration of justice. Yes, it is important to take socioeconomic factors into account. But it overlooks the greater sense of justice – that of reversing centuries of hatred and moving towards Dr. King’s still largely unfulfilled dream.
A related example is a study in which researchers first interviewed Boston and Chicago employers. They mostly claimed to be “hungary for qualified minorities and were aggressively seeking diversity.” Five thousand resumes were issued, with each employer receiving four fake resumes: averagely qualified with stereotypically black name, averagely qualified with stereotypically white name, highly qualified with black name, and highly qualified with white name. This image schematically portrays the relative number of callbacks received:[1]
I want to take the opportunity address and hopefully clear up the issue that, in some contexts, the word “diversity” has a negative sting. For example, Jake tells Mike, “You know, I liked The View better when it was more diverse.” Mike: “Whadrya saying?! Just because Star Jones is black, the show was an example of diversity?” When John McWhorter spoke at Rutgers, he referred to the concept of the “token black” — the idea that the mere presence of an individual with a unique characteristic enriches their surroundings with diversity. Could this simply be a misunderstanding of diversity’s definition? Or perhaps of its proper context?
Superficially, the newly integrated schools of the 1950s were most certainly diverse in that they had both black and white students. But was there unity in that diversity? Bring it home: Even today, are students free of prejudice as they form friendships? Or are the lunchrooms, gym classes, buses, and academic levels(!) still segregated in the majority of cases? Does this lead to segregated families and communities?
Affirmative action, as I understand it, is about both enabling and empowering disadvantaged individuals to develop their full capacity. More than granting admission to a socioeconomically challenged person, it means continuing to encourage true growth. It does not mean adding a “token black” to a mostly white classroom. Affirmative action must be implemented by people who have their sights set higher than co-existence, higher than tolerance. We must be committed to true unity and integration. Efforts towards anything less will likely fall apart and be criticized as pointless.
Now, why am I digressing from education? Actually, I’m not. Educators and stakeholders must preemptively and concurrently strive against whatever impedes the development of their students. Racism prevents collaboration, threatens individual and collective achievement, and propagates arrogance and hatred. All of these conditions are detrimental to working environments, family life, and community development. As the above presentation suggests, racism has been and is still allowed to loom over us all. Therefore, this theme is of great importance when discussing improving education. And this is not just about black and white; around the world prejudices draw lines between tribes, religious groups, and all sorts of ethic minorities.
What other evidence is there for or against the existence of racism? What are analogous situations outside the United States? What affects does racism have on the learning process? On related elements of society? What can be done by educators and stakeholders to continually diminish the influence of subconscious prejudices (also ethnic, religious) on themselves, on their teaching methods, and on their students? How about some affirmative action success stories?
Exploring Education 