| Recently, Affirmative Action (AA) has been debated more intensely than at any other time in its 35-year history. Many supporters view AA as a milestone; many opponents see it as a millstone; and many others regard it as a necessary, but imperfect, remedy for an intractable social disease. My own view is that Affirmative Action is nepotism for the common person whose last name is not Bush or Kennedy. Affirmative Action provides equal opportunities to those who have equal abilities. Period, no more, no less. It allows those people who have otherwise been denied this opportunity to compete on a level playing field. Since education is a building block to providing opportunity, by denying it to some, we are ignoring the realities of society and denying opportunities to communities of color. President Lyndon B. Johnson best described the concept underlying Affirmative Action when he said, "You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe you have been completely fair ... This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity -- not just legal equity but human ability -- not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result." Affirmative Action was never proposed as a cure-all solution to inequality. Rather, it was intended only to redress discrimination in hiring and academic admissions. However, to do as what Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, and State Senator Glenn Grothman propose "that race should not be a factor" is utter nonsense. At the December 19 Wisconsin Legislative Council on Affirmative Action meeting, Connerly said, "I believe and will always believe that the use of race by the government is wrong ... I oppose treating people differently on the basis of their race." Mr. Connerly, just because you oppose treating people differently because of their race does not mean it does not happen. The reality is, people are treated differently because of the color of their skin, country of origin, language they speak, or gender. Treated differently are people who are African American, Latino, Asian American, or women who have been, are, and will continue to be discriminated against in hiring practices and admission into college as long as racism exists. I, as a Hmong person and as a minority, have been discriminated against based solely on the way I look (my race). I have also seen other minorities discriminated against because of their race. Race does matter and it does play a role in the real world. Connerly argued that the Affirmative Action has been in existence for nearly 40 years but it has not worked; thus, we need to get rid of it. Grothman also stated, "We have had Affirmative Action 40 years now. Do we continue or say 'enough is enough''?" Blacks have a 388-year history on this continent: 245 involving slavery, 100 involving legalized discrimination, and only 30 involving anything else. Bearing in mind that Jim Crow laws and lynching existed well into the 1960s, and that myriad subtler forms of racism in housing, employment, and education persisted well beyond the Civil Rights Movement, I firmly believe that 40 years is just a start and we should not be so quick to past judgment. Why don't we as a society wait another 100 years to see if AA works before we call it quits? One of the biggest misconceptions about AA is that it opens the door for jobs, promotions or education to minorities while it shut the door to Whites. Many opponents of AA try to sell the notion that unqualified minorities are getting a free ride on the American system. "Preferential treatment" and "quotas" were mandated as a means to address past discrimination and that more qualified Whites were overlooked for less qualified minorities. AA is the equalizer in that it provides equal opportunities to those with "equal" abilities. Affirmative action is an effort to overcome prejudicial treatment through inclusion rather than exclusion as in the past. In retrospect, Affirmative Action for the privileged has been in existence for thousands of years but only referred to by different names. AA for the privileged is oftentimes referred to as nepotism, social partisanship, and cronyism. However, unlike the negative stigma attached to AA for minorities, there is none for the privileged/Whites. If a college has the right to reserve admission slots based solely on the fact that you can jump four feet in the air or that your parents graduated from that college regardless of your own merits, shouldn't that same college have the right to reserve admission slots based on race? Affirmative Action allows colleges to look at factors such as race, socio-economic, and environmental hardship. It allows qualified minority students who would otherwise not be given the chance to be admitted the same opportunity as the high school star athlete or the student who comes from a well to do family to get a good quality education. Oftentimes in discussing Affirmative Action the Asian American population is left out of the discussion. Because of the belief that Asians have attained economic and academic success in the United States, many assume that Asians do not have to deal with the racism or discrimination that negatively impacts "real" minorities. Besides being a dangerous over-generalization, this misperception obscures the actuality of the different Asian group experiences. While the accomplishments of some Asian Americans are very visible in this society, the challenges and the discrimination that confront Asian Americans that have recently moved to the United States, such as the Hmong, remain unnoticed. Asian Americans have become an invisible minority. If Asian Americans are a "model" to others, why would they need anything especially Affirmative Action? Therein lies the biggest challenge to the Asian American community. Thus, Asian Americans need to persistently and persuasively work to change the model-minority perception. In addition to this, Asian Americans must continuously work at educating mainstream society that the label "Asian Americans" incorporate many different Asian groups such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Hmong and Indian to name just a few. A "one-size-fits all" label does not accurately portray that each Asian group has their own unique history, culture, and experiences living in America. Similarly, each Asian group has their own challenges when applying for jobs and admission to colleges. As a result, Asian Americans should not be lumped into just one category but into sub-categories. For example, Chinese Americans who may have lived in America for over 100 years do not face the same challenges such as Limited English Proficiency, low income, and high birth rate that some Hmong face because the Hmong have only been in America for about 30 years. If you do not sub-categorize Asian Americans, many of the newer Asian groups to this country will fall victim to reverse Affirmative Action. Reverse Affirmative Action discrimination happens when one minority group excels thus forcing limits on the number of that minority. Universities such as U.C. Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Brown imposed a quota or upper limit on their admission on the number of Asian students once their Asian student population reached 10-15 percent. Even though many of the Hmong students are the first ones in their families to go to college, they are denied admission because they are classified as "Asian American." And so, few Hmong students even attend college. Thus to answer Senator Grothman's question, we as a society owe it to ourselves and to our children to continue with Affirmative Action. When the Republican Party try to use immigration to divide this country, we as a nation was smart enough to see through the smoke and glass. Switching tactics now, they want to focus on AA to divide us again. Do not let the opponents of AA divide this nation more than it already is. Affirmative Action works. It works because it gives everyone an equal opportunity to go to college, get jobs and provide for their families. It does not take jobs from you or me and give it to a less qualified person. In a world that is yet to be color blind, Affirmative Action allows people with names such as Xiong, Lopez, and Motaka an opportunity to compete with those whose names are Bush, Kennedy, and Smith. |
| Thoughts on Affirmative Action by Peng Her |
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