More than 35 years after the first executive order on affirmative action was issued, the time has passed to define what equal opportunity does and should mean in the 21st century. More specifically, affirmative action in higher education is going through a defining transition that will cast its future role in America.
With the great advancements made by all minorities and the female majority, affirmative action is in a position to take the next big step toward providing equality for every citizen. However, with a vague synopsis of what affirmative action actually means, and what it can accomplish, it also stands at the edge of a steep cliff, threatening to fall into obscurity.
When President Richard Nixon issued White House Executive Order 11246 in 1965 (later amended), he made the first bold step in the past 50 years toward providing equal opportunity in the workplace. That order issued a mandate that employers monitor their hiring of individuals from target groups (e.g., women) to find if it reflected the availability of talent in the community. Needless to say, the results were not as promising as one would hope. To say that no progress has been made is as dangerous as to say that the need for more change has passed. Racial, cultural and religious minorities, gays, women, the disabled and the mentally ill have all seen their causes improve dramatically, especially in the past 10 years. However, progress does not equate to equality.
The next stage of affirmative action must be enacted to provide access to higher education for the poor and disabled. While current law allows preferred treatment for minorities to higher education, it is only addressing part of the problem.
Let’s say 60 percent of African-Americans fall into the poverty gap. If we pass a law that gives preferred treatment to all African-Americans, then we will likely help those 60 percent who exist in poverty, but we are also providing economic assistance and preference to those who are not necessarily in need.
We should have an affirmative action system that opens doors for all citizens trapped in economic hardship. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, what your gender is, who you prefer to sleep with or what god you choose to worship. If you don’t have the financial resources to provide for yourself, you are not going to succeed. Affirmative action based on economic need, combined with strictly enforced equal opportunity, would help all citizens in need.
Marketability is the greatest motivation for equal rights. Look no further than your Thursday night network programming for proof. Television producers didn’t suddenly develop a conscience and decide it would be a good idea to start making some shows with gay and lesbian characters. Instead, what they found was that there is a responsive market for that type of programming, or as Nixon’s executive order decreed, “a target group for available talent in the community.” By providing an equal economic playing field for those with the ambition to succeed, we can gain the extra inches needed to overcome the hurdle of diversity still lagging in our society.
Ask any member of the Islamic Five Percent Nation, an offshoot of the Black Muslim Nation of Islam, and they will tell you an army of educated men is a force to be reckoned with. There are many avenues of untapped potential that can be used in accomplishing this goal. Provide more money for government programs like Americorps, which offer tuition assistance in return for community service. Also, don’t ignore the effectiveness of organizations that have already made significant contributions to higher education, such as the armed services. Finally, instead of making it a fight between the public and private sectors, reach further into community resources like faith-based organizations so they can do a better job of helping their communities.
While it may be politically sexy to play the blame game, this won’t get us anywhere as citizens. A poor, sick and hungry white kid suffers the same pain and humiliation as a poor Latino kid. Believe me, I’ve lived on that side of the tracks. When the left tells you that your problems don’t count because you’re part of the “ruling elite,” it makes the emotional scars run that much deeper. Likewise, when the right tells a poor minority to simply try harder, they tear a great fissure in the cultural divide that cannot be easily healed.
In the end, we need a clear objective for overcoming the problems of racism, sexism and poverty. I suggest that the most effective way of accomplishing this is by strict enforcement of equal employment laws already on the books, and by providing economic assistance to all of the ambitious poor.