Affirmative Actions and Justice
The “problem” is America is possibly the most diverse society on earth with many races, nationalities, and cultures living side by side. Tensions are inevitable, and in the case of the black population often severe (McGowan Michael: Racism and Sexism: The Debate over Affirmative Action, Slide 3). The U.S. is leading the rest of the world in confronting the issue, and we are way out front of most of the globe. There is a popular perception of the U.S. as a highly racist country. That we have a race problem is absolutely and without question true but it is not as bad as the problem is in many, maybe most, other countries. Other countries are more homogeneous so their racism is less obvious. The reality is racism is global. Racism is a human condition. Most countries are fairly homogenous compared to the U.S., so the tensions between the leading group and minorities are contained. In the U.S., this is not the case. Media attention within the U.S. of our racist heritage and some highly publicized crimes committed by rogue cops leaves the impression we are out of control. These shootings represent the actions of a small percentage of police officers. Additionally, racist Americans have always existed, and as black Americans have moved toward equal rights, the racists have resisted with every demented fibre in their being. They demand that there be no discussion of race issues in America; they dismiss such discussion as whining (if the speaker is black) or white guilt (if the speaker is white).
The introduction of affirmative action was to create justice for all races. The affirmative action was intended to compensate for racial injustices. Instead, it legalized and institutionalized racism (McGowan Michael: Racism and Sexism: The Debate over Affirmative Action, Slide 14). It is an official admission by the government that blacks are unable to compete on a level field. Compare it with the situation of the Jews who also are a minority and have suffered persecution for much longer than slavery existed in America. Jews somehow get by without affirmative action. What does it tell you about the blacks? Additionally, would it be a surprise if a talented white kid who got rejected by Harvard in favour of a less talented black kid will resent blacks as a result? For me, this is a personal issue. When my Moscow-born daughter applied for business school, she was accepted into the most prestigious schools, including Harvard. A few years later, when my American-born son applied to all the same schools, none of those prestigious schools was interested in him despite his better grades and better job experience. The absurdity of this case is glaring. They are both equally white, but foreign-born females get preference over American-born males. I don’t see how this country can benefit from it. Furthermore, imagine you are travelling with your child. The child gets appendicitis. You bring him to the nearest emergency room, he gets diagnosed and prepped for the operation. The surgeon is black. He may be the best surgeon in the world, but the first thing that will pop into your head will be “Affirmative action!” Affirmative action is a blunt but necessary tool to overcome the momentum of centuries of discrimination and outright oppression. By tilting an already tilted table back slightly in the right direction we give a fair chance to students who are otherwise capable and motivated, and on average who would be in a better place except for the circumstances of their birth. Some people who benefitted didn’t need or deserve the lift, some others who deserved a second chance can’t get it through affirmative action, and the remedial help has been grossly and unfairly stigmatized. None of that changes the underlying issue that some minorities in America were mistreated, there is some lingering racism, and the legacy of substandard education, lack opportunity, poverty, ill health, and crime, has not entirely been overcome yet.
Rawls had a different opinion in regards to affirmative action, which is worked out to give jobs and other perks to minorities and other vulnerable, as with how fundamental liberties and fair equality of opportunities should be so guaranteed as to make sure that everyone starts from a position where arbitrariness is reduced to the minimum from a moral point of view (McGowan Michael: Theories of Justice and Power, slide 7). It is one case to prefer vulnerable with benefits to which they may otherwise have no claim, and it is quite another thing to accord them fundamental liberties and fair equality of opportunities in a way that reduces arbitrary conditions and ensures two fundamental principles of justice. The first case is no different from replacing one unfair condition with another arbitrary action, which Rawls is quite staunchly averse to.
Plato identified an alternative to affirmative actions to be justice which is a virtue that he argued the justice consisted in each man performing his allotted functions. This could be how possible only when there is a scientific system of education is an attempt to cure a mental melody by mental medicine (McGowan Michael: Theories of Justice and Power, slide 6). So Plato told his attention to education in his Republic. Rousseau describes it as the greatest treaties on education ever written. Plato state that an ideal state could be created only when they were good citizens not such a state needed discipline just educated people. Education alone can mould people’s character that when the citizens are good and virtuous, laws, our unnecessary not are useless when citizens are bad. Hence, moulding the character of people is more important and urgent than anything else. So he develops a comprehensive system of state-controlled compulsory education for both men and women.
References
McGowan Michael: Theories of Justice and Power. PPT
McGowan Michael: Racism and Sexism: The Debate over Affirmative Action. PPT