In Defense of Affirmative Action

Offie C. Wortham, in his commentary, suggests that Affirmative Action might better be applied for the benefit of the poor rather than Blacks. He says this would help Blacks who need help, without helping out those who don't need help. It's an intriguing idea, but Dr. Wortham has omitted certain points that, as a professor of race relations, he is no doubt aware. The first is that, in study after study, it has been shown that Blacks get a raw deal over and above the effect of social class. Take two kids who are equally poor, the White one will have more opportunities than the Black one.

When I was kid my family had very little money. But low income doesn't equate with poor opportunity either. I scored a combined 1500 on my SATs. Affirmative Action was just as unnecessary for me as it might be for the children of Barak Obama. But why take away a helpful tool from millions of disadvantaged people because of a handful of families that don't need it?

Finally, there's the whole notion that Affirmative Action lessens the achievements of Blacks. This is only another effect of racism. After all, race is only one factor that gives a student preference in college admittance. Athletes, musicians, kids with unusual academic interests, all these get preference, and they are not told they didn't earn it. Then there are legacies. Legacies are the children of graduates of a college. That is to say, the son of a Harvard graduate gets admitted to Harvard with lesser qualifications than other applicants. Children who have already benefited from the good education given their parents get preferential treatment, and no one sneers at them for it. In the immortal words of Al Franken: "All the time I was at Harvard, I never heard a Lowell or a Cabot remark, 'I dare say, I despise this godawful legacy policy. It makes me so suspect in the eyes of my classmates.'"

Affirmative Action for poor Americans might be a good idea, but ending it for racial minorities is not.