Conservatives want to have cake and sell it, too
It's a simple thing to view affirmative action as reverse racism, setting different standards based on race. On the simplest level, that is exactly what it is. The problem with the issue of race in our society is that it is anything but simple. Is affirmative action an attempt to correct the sins of our fathers, or is it an attempt to level the playing field by reversing the direction in which the discrimination is pointed? And what type of affirmative action is the enemy here?
Groups like the Young Conservatives hate affirmative action because they see it as taking power from them, but they need to clarify their stance. What they truly hate is racial affirmative action. After all, the great conservative himself, President George W. Bush, is a product of affirmative action. How could he not be? How many of us got better grades and SAT scores than George Bush? And how many of us went to Yale? Not many.
Name recognition and money can get you into a good school, but it is mostly white people who have enough money and recognition to push their sub-par child into an Ivy League school. This type of affirmative action is based on power. This same white privilege exists in all levels of society, but groups like the Young Conservatives do not acknowledge their privilege. Why should they examine race, power and privilege when they benefit from their white privilege?
Athletics is another form of affirmative action that is alive and well all over Texas. We have all heard stories about the athletes with low grades and low SAT scores getting into great universities. Again, this type of affirmative action appears to be OK to the Young Conservatives because they benefit from it. They get to go to their football games and brag about the greatness of their school.
So, the Young Conservatives seem to be OK with affirmative action based on wealth, athletic prowess and family connections, yet they do not like affirmative action based on race. At the same time, they would surely claim to not be racist. Is it possible to oppose only racial affirmative action and not be racist?
How DO we create a colorblind society, where opportunities are equally available to all who seek it? I'll be damned if I know. As long as so many of us are still hung up on the past and on the color of our skin, race relations will continue going nowhere in a hurry for the foreseeable future.
