Affirmative Action needs adjustment
Campus Times
October 11, 1996
by Scott Mac Kay
News Editor
For decades, the hallmarks of American society, our businesses, colleges
and government, were a medieval fortress only allowing those of the proper
gender, race or nationality to pass through their gates.
Racism, slavery, exploitation of Native Americans and discrimination toward
women are broken walls that once protected this medieval fortress from those
who were deemed unworthy because of the color of their skin or the birthland
of their parents.
In all of these cases, the walls of exclusion could not withstand the
will of a changing society.
The 200-year-old ongoing experiment in democracy that is the United States
became a truly functioning democracy within the past 30 years because of
the social leaps made by the civil rights movement-a movement that stormed
the gates of tradition by upholding the notion that only government-mandated
equality can ensure equal representation of all sexes, races, colors and
nationalities in colleges and in public employment.
As an offspring of the civil rights movement, affirmative action worked
to mandate a level playing field away from the oppression of the past and
looking to give future generations an equal opportunity.
Those future generations have grown up under the shield of affirmative action
and have passed through the walls of American society that their parents
could only stand and look at from a distance.
The battering ram of affirmative action has breached an opening in American
society and should be now be aimed at the next wall that blocks our progress
as a people.
Affirmative action sought to give opportunity to minorities and women in
the workplace and on college campuses. The next wall affirmative action
faces is truly the major reason people do not have an opportunity to get
ahead in society-their socio-economic status, the relative level of wealth
that individuals experience in their community.
The economic status of the areas we live in can have an effect on our lives
just as much as the color of our skin and the heritage of our parents.
Inner city schools do not produce the best candidates for college, the opportunity
for higher education is lost on someone whose greater concerns are avoiding
drug deals and shootings. Affirmative action as it exists fails to address
these issues and allows the economically poor of our society, regardless
of skin color, to be pushed aside in our thoughts of equality.
When getting into college, a member of a minority group who has wealthy
parents has more opportunities to advance because of affirmative action
than a poor member of a non-minority group. Growing up a minority in Beverly
Hills can afford you more chances that being white in the depths of an inner
city.
When the government creates guidelines for public employment, education
and contracting, it needs to look beyond the color of a person's skin and
into the environment that created that person. This standard is not as easy
to apply as a quota system to increase ethnic or gender numbers, however
we have a duty to the warriors of the past to continue the fight for equal
opportunity regardless of the trouble or cost.
The medieval fortress of ideals that encompasses the United States is indeed
a medieval mindset. As the thoughts of the society move forward, we face
higher and stronger walls that can only be broken down by the will of a
society that understands the need for equality on a changing standard.
As we move forward we must face those who fear losing control and losing
power to those who have never held any.
Scott Mac Kay, a senior communications major, is News Editor for the
Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at mackays@ulvacs.ulaverne.edu.