I feel like this issue will be a little more contesting in class than it was in the article. As a white male I find myself a stringent supporter of affirmative action. Originating from a 1/3 Black, 1/3 Asian, 1/3 White high school, yet in my senior year there was only one black student who made it onto the 'A' honor role. Ridiculous. I see there are good arguments for both sides, however, the acts we as a country have committed in the past, no matter how long ago, must be given accountability. That accountability, I believe comes in the form of affirmative action.
I find myself supporting affirmative action even as I apply to jobs where women and minorities are especially advised to apply. I found it interesting for affirmative action to fight the tide of one group of people having a monopoly of positions. I also reject the position that the market place will solve the issue of sex and race discrepancy in the long run. We must recognize that the market is currently headed by white males, and maybe there is a slim chance that skills may overcome this unjust structure at some point, although I don't see it happening in this millennium.
Anthony Scalia, no matter how colorful his dissents are, he is wrong about his logic on this subject. Although he does no deny there is a debt, he opposes how much the current public should be the responsibility in a very libertarian way. If new immigrants have come to this country in since Jim Crowe, (the last government prejudice I could think of), that last generation should die off and we should then have an equal society. The fact is this hasn't happened. I think it is because, as Fienberg alludes to, it is a cultural problem. We currently have a second class of immigrants emigrating from Mexico. Are culture hasn't changed that much since we still need to compensate for social differences in the form of affirmative action. As long as the whites are on top we will always have this problem.
Look at our faculty at our own university. Should we keep affirmative action higher up on the agenda?
If we didn't hold asinine views two hundred years ago would we really need to worry about the issue of affirmative action today?
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I really liked your point, Adam, that the very power structure on which our capitalist society is built continues to be controlled almost exclusively by white men. I agree that the idea that the free market will fix society's inequalities is ludicrous (although not quite as ludicrous as the bell-curve view). If the free market hasn't cured the social injustices in our society yet, why should we expect it to in the future? The free market allows the most efficient means to prevail; it does not take into account whether or not the means are ethical. It is very efficient for companies to pay women less than men for the same work and to pay desperate Mexican immigrants less-than-livable wages; for that matter, slavery is perhaps the most efficient form of labor of all!
ReplyDeleteCapitalism is not, I believe, without its merits, but I also think that it is irresponsible to immediately prescribe it as a cure for all of society's ailments.