The title of this post sums up this week's reflection quite nicely. I should just be able to say "yes", get my grade and move on. To me this is a very simple issue, we built an entire civilization upon the enslavement, genocide, and repression of different ethnic backgrounds and it is incumbent upon our society to offer ways for people of these ethnic backgrounds to regain the ground they had lost. Some would say I am exaggerating with genocide but I think the Native American population tends to disagree and I bring it up as it is not something I've seen widely discussed. I could discuss slavery and Jim Crow but I have seen those brought up a great deal and a large discussion on the ills of our history is outside the realm of this blog post. This post assumes those ills are widely known and accepted.
So accepting that there are significant horrors in our nation's history why should it not be ethical to seek to redress those affected. Some opponents of Affirmative Action say that since those polices are no longer in effect or have long since past that there is no need to give preferential treatment to people of any ethnic background. This is only appealing on a very basic level. A deeper understanding of the effects of racial discrimination is needed. In short, centuries and decades of oppression have left affected ethnic backgrounds way behind in opportunity. This is plainly evidenced in wealth gaps among ethnicities. Hugh LaFollette touches on this in his work The Practice of Ethics by arguing that the parents of blacks in our current society had to start much further behind on the socio-economic ladder than the parents of whites (LaFollette, 2007). This is an inarguable point. It is preposterous to assume that blacks are all of sudden going to have the same opportunity as whites in 2014 as their parents were largely prohibited from succeeding at all. Success in life is largely determined on where you start and this is just as true in America. In fact, many Nordic countries enjoy greater economic mobility than the US. Knowing all of this, it is imperative that we open as many doors as possible to those that are further behind. It isn't enough to say, "Well we are all equal, sorry for that stuff we did to your parents. Good luck getting out of that crushing poverty." A society should be judged on how it treats those that are most vulnerable and I feel that in that light we fail.
Another argument is that affirmative action discriminates against whites as they may be the most qualified candidate and therefore deserve the job. I have sat down with HR professionals and hiring managers across a spectrum of industries and I can confidently say the best qualified candidate is rarely chosen for a position. It is the person that is the best overall fit for the position that is chosen. So what if you have the best production numbers? If no one likes you, you aren't getting that job. So that particular argument tends to fall a little flat. I get that the larger point is that candidates that would have been chosen cannot be chosen as they are of the "wrong" ethnicity. This does happen. But does it happen so often that the policy should be thrown out? No.
In an ideal world, a workplace should be diverse as diversity is actually better for the bottom line. However, if poor education opportunities and lack of support structures make it harder for certain ethnic backgrounds to acquire the necessary qualifications to acquire leadership roles all the best intentions are worthless. There simply aren't qualified candidates. Why? The education requirements for leadership positions are, typically, post-secondary and lack of available credit, funds, and opportunity leave minorities struggling to meet the basic criteria much less face any overt racial challenge.
Getting back to the discrimination argument; yes there may be some discrimination against qualified white candidates but it is in such a small number as to make that ethical choice in favor of affirmative action. Once again, the answer lies in the statistics. In that first link you should notice the trend is increasing though numbers of minorities in CEO positions is painfully small. This should be taken as a need to continue affirmative action policies, not remove them.
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