Nothing Affirmative About Affirmative Action

The warning of Isaiah “woe to those who call good evil and evil good” is appropriate in our time. It is a favorite tactic of the progressive movement in this country, as they seek to hide the true intent of their disastrous policies. An excellent example is their strategy is affirmative action, a position long promoted by the Left, which does exactly the opposite of its reported purpose. Affirmative action policies are supposed to alleviate the consideration of race in personnel decisions, ranging from hiring and firing to salary levels; however, in reality, they elevate race to a prominent status in personnel decisions.

Affirmative action, its advocates claim, “levels the playing field” to ensure that no one is denied an opportunity to succeed based on race or creed. While this notion appeals to virtually all Americans, of every political persuasion, that is not what affirmative action policies actually accomplish. Instead, they segment Americans into categories, and assign lower achievement expectations to minority communities. I believe that the Democratic belief that minority communities can only succeed if you water-down the standards is “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Inasmuch, any politician that proposes lowering achievement standards and expectations for one people group, based on the color of their skin, is taking an inherently racist position.

That’s why the attacks launched against conservatives who compared the media blitz on Herman Cain to the attacks against Clarence Thomas, are particularly amusing. A commentator on MSNBC stated that Rush Limbaugh’s defense of Herman Cain was “playing the race card.” The commentator went on to ask if Limbaugh, and by extension other conservatives, would now step-up and support affirmative action. The narrative the Left is trying to establish is that conservatives, who oppose affirmative action, while defending Herman Cain against a media smear, are inconsistent. That’s by way of saying that opposing affirmative action is a racist position, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The best way to end racism in this country is make race a non-factor in hiring, firing, college admissions, salary levels or any other personnel decision. In order to create a truly color-blind society, we must stop obsessing over color and creed. It is truly fascinating that the Left would espouse affirmative action, a program that effectively treats minorities as an underclass, while claiming to be for racial equality. It is yet another example of the Left’s saying of one thing, while doing another. Perhaps that’s the intent…to pretend to do something virtuous, while intending to holding others back. It reminds me too much of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Program, which he implemented for the express purpose of buying the vote of black Americans. Johnson himself admitted it was actually implemented to make minority communities dependent on leftist government programs. So, while it sounded good on the surface, the devil was, perhaps literally, in the details. There’s nothing affirmative about affirmative action, and it is time for true racial equality in America.