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Affirmative Action
As Outdated as Dinosaurs,
As Detrimental as Taxes
by nicholas mccombe
Affirmative action’s original
intention was to
level the so-called playing
field, a concept that
has plagued human existence
since its start. A fact that is hard
to come to terms with is that the playing
field will never be level no matter how
hard we try. Men are predisposed to prejudge
others based on class and race;
this phenomenon has existed since the
dawn of time. The idealistic philosophy
that people can exist without prejudice,
being the great survival mechanism that
it is, is a deeply flawed theory given the
facts of human nature. A common misconception
is that affirmative action was
somehow passed by Congress but really
the only legislation that it is rooted in
is the Civil Rights act, which had just
passed before the implementation of the
idea. The policy has been formed by a
series of executive orders and Supreme
Court rulings. The concept was first outlined
by Lyndon B. Johnson, and he said
the following about it in his landmark
speech. “You do not wipe away the scars
of centuries by saying: ‘now, you are
free to go where you want, do as
you desire, and choose the leaders
you please.’ 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.” From its outset it
was already an extremely controversial
policy as it was painted as
reverse racism. I have never understood
where the term “reverse
racism” comes from. Affirmative
action is just racism, period. Favoritism
of one race over another
is what sparked the Civil Rights
Act. Racism does not have to be
directed against minorities to deserve
that title. Up until today the
tension has been characterized
through, most notably, Supreme
Court cases and most recently, the New
Haven Fire Fighters case in 2009. That
case sought to curb affirmative action
and succeeded. Preceding that there
was the perennially front running California,
which voted in a referendum to
outlaw it. The policy as it stands only
When the court ultimately decided
to uphold the University’s policy it
legitimized the idea that being of
a different race and being a good
athlete were equivalent, and that
in the interest of having a diverse
student body it was okay to racially
discriminate.
applies to government entities, schools
and universities, and public contractors
who receive more than $35,000 in
contracts from the government yearly.
Through this policy, the United States
government is supporting discrimination
that affects 105 million people in
America today. The greatest portion of
that number comes from education at 80
million according to the Census Bureau.
After that more than 10 million comes
from the number of people directly employed
by the government and 15 million
comes from the number of people
employed by government contractors.
Affirmative action alienates those who
we seek to include by setting them in a
class of their own. Its original intention
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The Horace Mann Review | Vol. XX