When affirmative action was introduced in 1961 it was a positive step to fight discrimination in our country. For over three decades, affirmative action policies and programs have aimed to improve and increase educational and economical opportunities for people of color, race, religion and sexual orientation. But has the push for affirmative action gone too far?
More stories are surfacing now on experiences of reverse discrimination. Take for example, the story of the New Haven, CT firefighters. In a recent Supreme Court decision, a majority of justices ruled that the city of New Haven improperly threw out the results of promotional exams that officials said too few minorities qualified.
Critics of affirmative action say that it is a policy whose time is up. Many of these critics believe that affirmative action results in the promotion of mediocre to low level employees in the workplace. These results end up to harm women and minorities by destroying their ability to compete with their peers and exposing them to ridicule. Here is an example that hits home for me...I had a white female friend, who recently had a Comcast cable bill that she wanted to dispute. She had movie charges on there that she did not order. She called the billing department and got two Hispanic males that were billing officials. She had a difficult time understanding their broken English and asked to speak with a supervisor. When she got the supervisor to her surprise he was a middle-easterner with what I would describe as very poor communication skills at least in English. Many people are coming across these same problems, whether it be disputing a bill, at the local convenience store or even listening to the priest at church. Who really are the minorities here? The U.S. now has a black president and a female politician in Sarah Palin who ran for vice-president. These two have been all over the news. You can't turn a channel on and not see a glimpse of what they are up to, politically or personally.
Supporters of affirmative action say that racism and sexism have shaped the face of American in a variety of undesirable and effective ways. They feel that antidiscrimination laws still need a lot of help from preferences that solidify that workplaces continue to give the opportunities to grow for minorities and women, that schools need to give every opportunity to educate and improve test scores specifically for minorities. It is because of these ideals that supporters of affirmative action truly believe that it's time is not up.
I teach at an inner-city high school. This upcoming year school district has decided to combine low-level with college-level algebra students. They hope this will improve CT CAPT scores. I will be teaching one of these courses. I have to say I have my doubts on whether this will improve the education of minorities. Through the districts data we have learned that the majority of our lower level students are made up of minorities, specifically blacks and Hispanics. I feel that we may improve some of the lower level students but we may lose a high number of them. In addition, what will happen to the higher level student? Will they be challenged enough or will they be held back? Is this differentiation in action or is this an example of affirmative action?
I believe that affirmative action does has its place in our society, but lets not go over board with it. We should not promote someone, whatever color or orientation they are, just for the sake of fulfilling the numbers. We should never look at race, color, religion or orientation but the credentials and the heart of the person. Listen to the song by Creed, "One". Some of the verses in the song are so deep and meaningful..."Take from one give to another" or "Discrimination now on both sides". Affirmative action is proof that our society only sees color and not the heart and soul of an individual. One idiot reporter once said to Doug Williams, who was the winning quarterback for the super bowl winning Redskins, "How long have you been a black quarterback?". Wow! Our society will always have an infinite battle when it comes to discrimination. I leave you now with one more line from Creed ..."The world is heading for mutiny."
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Once again, you do a fine job sharing your passion for the topic. I appreciate that you speak with such clarity on the subject and back up your claims with quotes, percentages, and even lines from songs. I was pleased to read your personal connection to the subject matter when you spoke about what your district is planning to implement in the coming school year, for as I had been reading, I found myself curious as to what was driving your passion on this topic. I am disappointed that your school will be taking the action they are planning to this fall. When my daughter began high school this past year, I was relieved that she would finally be in classes where her classmates would have the same drive and goals she did; that she wouldn't have to put up with being in mixed classes that held her back as the teacher had to work with the students who didn't understand the material, and most often didn't try to understand the material and ended up being a behavior problem because they were so out of their comfort zone. So, I find it disheartening that a high school would look to mix abilities in hopes of elevating those lower achieving student's test scores. I fear it will be at the expense of too many others.
ReplyDeleteWOW.. I can tell this is a really deep issue for you. I live in Northern Maine where everyone knows everyone. It is a hard place to move to since everyone is some how connected to another. Even though we do not have a lot of diversity in the area we do deal with immigrates coming to the area to work in the forest of farming industries. I live in a forest town. Our town is the last town to the Northern Maine Woods. Every summer there are groups of Mexican workers that work in the woods. I am new to the area and I don’t understand why they come to the area. Our lumber mill and wood pellet mill had to shut down this for months this winter and spring. I have to ask myself why are they hear when we are hurting as a small community.
ReplyDeleteI teach in a town that is all farm land. They mostly grow potatoes, broccoli, wheats to make beer. Many of the croups grown in this area are sold to make lays potato chips, McCains french fries and other potato products. The farming industry is what is keeping this community alive by creating jobs. However, as farming equipment improves there is less of a need for human labor. The area use to have 3 weeks off at the end of September into October to help harvest crops. I hear many stories from people about the good old days picking potatoes in the field. Since the improvements in farming equipment they do not need to have a hundred people working in the fields. We still have a week off for harvest break. However, I can see that tradition disappearing in the near future. Since the area did not need the community to help harvest the crops the population in the town decreased. Teachers in their 50’s that graduated from the town said they graduated with a class of 150 students. Last years graduating class was 42. People are leaving the area because the lack of jobs. Improvements in the farming equipment eliminated jobs and also Mexican workers come to harvest broccoli. They come for a month and by hand they harvest the broccoli the machines with minimal labor harvest the potatoes. I moved to the area from MA and I can clearly see that this is a problem for an area that is in need of jobs, but we are giving them to others outside the country. I have to ask myself why? Why would they do this and is it doing more harm then good?