In the 1960’s race specific remedies were legalized to end racial bias. Besides overturning Jim Crow laws the most prominent law was affirmative action.

Everything was moving along smartly and then the recession in the late 1980’s hit. Then white started losing their jobs and they started to think along the same lines as the Brothers. Both the Brothers and some whites thought that African Americans had an advantage over whites when it came to applying for a job. There is no evidence to support this line of thinking.

Then in the late 1990’s people started thinking that discrimination was going away and they started passing laws that ended many civil rights reforms. Specifically, laws were passed in California to end affirmative action, bilingual education, and state-support for undocumented immigrants.

When politicians start arguments blaming minorities for whites losing their jobs or the state of the economy instead of attacking the real problem is race baiting.

Minority scapegoating is blaming minorities for social problems and is used to change welfare and other social programs.

I don’t know if minority scapegoating is a national policy in the U.S. but it is definitely a policy in some regions. Obviously it is happening in California but I do not recognize it happening in Washington or Oregon. I believe that some of the welfare reform came from the stereotype that single African American mothers have more kids for more welfare.

As for affirmative action, I do not have a problem with its results, but I do have a bit of problem with how it gets results. I think that it is sending the wrong message when someone gets a job because of their race or disability. I think affirmative action works but if you take away the fact that a person will use any advantage to get a job, myself included, I would feel bad if I beat a right-handed person for a job just because I was left-handed. I would feel better if I got the job because of my skills, personality, work ethic, and other intangibles and not because I was filling a quota.

With that said, I think affirmative action works but by the same token it is degrading to those who benefit from it.



A life without cheese is hardly a life worth living!