Reality check
Down in the middle of this article at the Christian Science Monitor
Enough assistance?
Is 40 years enough time to have pushed affirmative action as a means of ending discrimination? It depends how one defines the action and determines the goal.
According to recent polls, Americans are against "preferences," but they favor "assistance" and "special efforts" to help minorities in jobs and education. They clearly value racial diversity in higher education, and they approve of affirmative action in jobs and education for those coming from "an economically disadvantaged background," regardless of race or ethnicity. At the same time, they apparently believe the job is not finished.
"How close do you think we are to eliminating discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities in America for once and for all?" a Los Angeles Times poll asked earlier this year. Just 38 percent said the goal was "close" to being achieved, while 59 percent said "not too close" or "not close at all."
For most Americans, the issue may be felt strongly. But it's more idealistic or political than it is personal. "Relatively few people, white or black, report having real-life experiences with affirmative action," the Pew Research Center reported last month. Of those polled, 11 percent (mostly whites) said they had been hurt by affirmative action and 4 percent (mostly blacks and Hispanics) said they had been helped.
Eleven percent of the numerically greater group feels damaged by a policy that only four percent of the lesser group feels benefitted them.
Isn't that interesting?
Later: My first genuinely lazy post and
Ampersand busted me in the comments… I
hate when that happens.
Okay, playing with the numbers, if they interviews 100 folks and the folks "look like America" then about 12 of them will be Black and about another 12 will be Latino. Four of them, "mostly blacks and Hispanic," feel they've been helped by "affirmative action." That works out to about 16% of the minorities interviewed, while some 14% of white folks feel they've been hurt by it (11 out of 76). We're not talking great numbers of people who have been affected by it at all.
And since I'm cleaning stuff up here, I have to say I'm heartened by that fact that most people value diversity in jobs and higher education.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/29/2003 04:00:53 PM |
Posted by P6 at June 29, 2003 04:00 PM
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