Last week I received an email from the Latino Student Alliance list serve about some lecture on the law and politics of affirmative action encouraging all members to attend… Ironically, this happens to be the same lecture scheduled for tomorrow night’s class. So, for my next instillation into the GWST 2981 course blog I decide to do my homework and read Melissa Hart’s The State-by-State Assault on Equal Opportunity Issue Brief.
Considering I knew little on this subject to begin with, I decided to learn more. From a relatively naïve perspective, up until now all I knew about affirmative action was that it created opportunities for minorities in terms of continued schooling and jobs based on civil rights movements to make equality more attainable. However I have never exactly thought twice about its wide spread role in society.
Drawing upon Hart’s article, I feel that she brought up several good points. For instance, I like the way she laid a foundation for the understanding of affirmative action by stating, “…equal opportunity initiatives have been an essential component of efforts to foster true equality and ensure civil rights for women and people of color. (page 1)” Then, from here she took it further by stating, “Outreach, recruiting, training, and mentoring programs that target underrepresented groups have been indispensable to tearing down barriers to opportunity and giving long-excluded communities a fair chance to achieve their full potential. (page 1)” After reflecting on this, it broadened my perspective of affirmative action to consider a number of programs that I have been a part of throughout my life or have been instrumental in helping me get to where I am now.
So now with a more peaked interest, I believe she brings up a very good question regarding the concept of equality. From a good old American perspective, is “equality” merely a surface value we as a people cherish as part of a democratic nation or does it extend to create opportunity ensuring the success of all people? I feel that if America really is the land of opportunity, then anything that would oppose this ideal would be counteractive to the success of society as a whole and furthering diversity on all levels of society. In conclusion I look forward to hearing and discussing more on the affirmative action debate and the controversial ballot issue with its deceptive strategy and misleading language in class tomorrow.
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Your question is well-taken, Stephanie, and I think it gets at why many people might philosophically disagree with Affirmative Action even though they might be sympathetic to its larger goals. For me, one of the fundamental issues is about this notion of social justice: If we acknowledge that the disparities of today exist as a result of the history of our county, then what are our obligations to engage in some sort of action that purposefully remedies these inequalities?
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