"Affirmative Action"

Nobody is perfect.  We all have our faults.  But, in my case, they are a fricking avalanche.   If you have read this blog, you have come to expect that I am a Liberal.  Your expectation is correct, but don’t count on it as a predictor of opinion.  I occasionally step out of the parade.  Such is the case with the recent Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action for the colleges of the state of Michigan.  The Roberts’ Court will generally side 5:4 for the ultra-right.  These decisions are normally not good law or good policy.  But, even with their weighted scales of justice, they will occasionally get a decision right.  Can't seem to avoid it. Affirmative Action or positive discrimination is a temporary solution to a hopefully temporary problem.  I would like to see a day in American when skin color is no more important than hair color, but obviously we are not there yet.

By a wide margin in 2006, the voters of Michigan approved an amendment to the state constitution that says, “Michigan’s public universities shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”  The Supreme Court of the United States decided not to strike that down as unconstitutional, thus opening the door for the State of Michigan to strike down Affirmative Action and showing other states how to do the same.  This Michigan constitutional amendment is not only fair, but it should have been in all states’ constitutions two hundred years ago.  It is long overdue.

To me, the big plus for Affirmative Action was placing a black faculty in front of a black student body in an elementary school.  The students need to see that authority and success does not only come in white.  Having a black president, of course, goes a long way in this direction.  There are probably states in our country where Affirmative Action is no longer needed.  But certainly there are areas where it is.  The concept that our higher educational system has for generations discriminated against black students is well established, but to make that right, the discrimination must be stopped, not turned into an advantage.  The best example of reverse discrimination is Indian Gaming Casinos which are a bad idea both for the Indians and for those they prey on.

Good law should be good for today and hopefully good for the next century, as well.  It would mean writing fewer laws, but spending more time thinking about what is written.

Comments are welcome, Old Buz