I Affirm Affirmative Action
DG Burns
Recently State Press reporter Annica Benning wrote an op-ed piece about how affirmative action is essentially unnecessary, belittling to minorities and essentially reverse discrimination (she made this specific claim in the first version of her article that she surreptitiously revoked curiously after I decided to write a rebuttal under the notion of ‘accuracy’; however, luckily her ‘revised’ article, though less controversial, is nonetheless still inaccurate).
First, in her initial article she quotes Bill O’Reily – mistake number one.
Bill O’Reily is a racist.
Here’s a quote from him in reflecting on the Trayvon Martin incident “The civil rights industry and our leadership in Washington will not take on the black crime problem because in order to do so, black culture would have to change,” O’Reily said.
So, in order to curb violence in the African American community we need to change the culture? Yes, because African American culture is significantly more violent than white culture and is single-handedly responsible for their violence.
Wrong.
Black culture needs not change, rather, the system that perpetuates inequality and injustice towards minorities needs to be ameliorated. Then, and only then will we see crime among minorities decrease.
O’Reily is essentially calling black culture flawed in some way and that is, well, racist.
In her initial article she also mentioned that “our society has an unwritten rule: that white people cannot criticize black culture.”
This is true only when the person criticizing black culture is doing so in a racist manner and, guess what, O’Reily is guilty.
Second, the Benning mentions that “The primary problem with affirmative action is that it does not help minorities.”
Wrong again.
According to a report from the U.S. Labor Department, affirmative action has benefited 5 million minority members and 6 million white and minority women move up in the workforce.
The fact of the matter is: Affirmative Action is still necessary.
After California abolished its affirmative action policies in 1998 student admissions at Berkeley fell 61 percent and minority admissions at UCLA fell 36 percent.
According to the American Association of University Women, women’s average salary is $8,000 less than male’s average salary a year.
Also, the second graph mentions that “Practicing diversity only for a select ethnic group is discrimination against said ethnic group.”
Since when is affirmative action about one ethnic group? The author fails to mention that women and all minorities benefit from affirmative action.
Next, Benning claims that “The saddest aspect about affirmative action is it belittles minorities.”
She knows that because she’s of course a minority.
Nope.
Affirmative Action affirms minorities because it empowers them by providing them with equal opportunities.
Lastly, white people generally see affirmative action as reverse discrimination. However, let’s be real, that doesn’t exist.
I think Sara Luckey from Feminspire says it best when she states “When white people complain about experiencing reverse racism, what they’re really complaining about is losing out on or being denied their already existing privileges. And while it may feel bad to realize your privilege is crumbling and the things you’ve taken for granted can be taken away from you, it is unfair, untrue, and disingenuous to call that experience reverse racism” said Luckey.
This article is a classic article complaining about minorities taking away privileges from white people and is oddly directed at minorities exclusively. I can’t imagine how traumatizing affirmative action policies must be for someone going to a university is. It must be catastrophic to be enrolled in school and know that affirmative action is still rearing its ugly head.
The truth of the matter is this: minorities and women (who are oddly enough not mentioned in an article written by a woman) have had their teeth kicked in for so long that when they get a chance to eat at the table with the white men they will take it every time and that’s justice, not discrimination.
Reach the reporter: dgburns@asu.edu