Does Affirmative Action Perpetuate Racism?

The original purpose of Affirmative Action is to provide special consideration for qualified, under-represented women and minorities in education, employment and awarding contracts to compensate for historical and institutional racism, discrimination and oppression by white males.

Even though the face value of this policy appears to give women and minorities a long overdue short cut in the line of opportunities on the ride to their dreams; it is really an illusion of fairness that causes them to forget and overlook who owns the amusement park in the first place. Affirmative Action should not focus on giving under- represented populations short-cuts to the front of the line-but provide them with the psychological and educational tools that will allow them to design their own rides and build their own amusement park.

The current Affirmative Action policy is punitive in nature because it suggests that all white males are powerful, wealthy racists who oppress women and minorities. And if they do not personally have these characteristics, some white male in their family lineage did or will have these characteristics in the future for which they must be punished by exclusion. This policy also assumes that simply because he is a white male, he is automatically intellectually and financially superior to women and minorities. Additionally, everything that he wants will easily come to him without hard work, struggle and sacrifice because other white males in dominate positions anxiously wait to anoint his every desire.

This may be true for a small percentage of white males, but I believe that the majority of people regardless of race or gender have worked extremely hard to achieve their goals and dreams. The key to white male success is not that someone gave them the answers to the bar or college entrance exams, but that they share the same work ethic, identity and level of self-esteem as the people who wrote the exams.

A billion years from today American slavery and the annihilation of the Native Americans still will have taken place in America. How many years, decades or centuries must past before white men will be justly punished for the sins of their fathers? How will we scientifically measure whether or not they have been sufficiently punished for the sins of their father? Will we measure it by the success of women and minorities in comparison to white males; or by

the percentage of white males who fail in areas where they were previously successful? Based on the current conditions in American society Affirmative Action does not create a cooperative, cohesive American culture that unites its citizens; but one that is divisive and refuses to learn from the past and most importantly learn to forgive.