Last week, a column ran that called for the end of race-based affirmative action, ultimately claiming that race does not contribute much by the way of diversity. One line from this column really resonated with me. It read, “After all, this nation has prospered and attained greatness largely because it proudly maintains that it is a meritocracy.”
Meritocracy seemingly suggests that America is a country where one can achieve great successes by working hard. Arguably, a meritocracy would be a nice system to live in because those who are least successful are in such circumstance because of their own lack of good work ethic. Unfortunately, America is not a meritocracy.
Race is such a controversial and important issue in America only because we, as Americans, continue to project value upon race. We cannot just assume that because the black middle class has grown stronger in the decades following the Civil Rights Movement that race is no longer an issue in America. It is.
Research conducted by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business found that “white names” on resumes received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews than those resumes that used “black names.” This research concluded that there was little evidence to suggest that the employers used in this project were supposing socio-economic status from the various names used. These findings do not suggest that America’s supposed meritocracy is running so well.
Recording, learning, understanding and developing quality historical narratives is something that Americans seem to value a lot. And really, that is what race-based affirmative action does. It takes our racially stratified history into consideration during the admissions and employment process. Race-based affirmative action takes into consideration the affirmative action white people have had for over 400 years manifested in nepotism and quid pro quo.
The Homestead Act gave 270 million acres of land to white Americans for little to no cost at all to them. There are 40 million descendants of the people who were able to acquire this land alive today, and no doubt, this land almost given to them by our government has proved to be quite influential on their success. Affirmative action recognizes this disparity in privilege and gives minorities a little leniency on their GPAs or testing scores.
Affirmative action also takes into consideration that during its first 30 years the FHA home loans program provided nearly $120 billion to only white families that ultimately created the white middle class in America.
The reality of this unambiguous racially stratified history is something that affirmative action attempts to alleviate by providing a relatively minuscule advantage to those minorities who have continuously been put at a disadvantage both societally and economically in America.
We can only hope that, eventually, affirmative action will be a policy that is no longer needed because race will not prove to play as big of a role in a person’s development; however, the history of oppression is not long gone from minority communities in America. These Americans deserve to have the barriers placed against them considered in their application process.
Michael Patrick is a senior majoring in political science. His column runs on Tuesdays.
