What it Will Take to Make Affirmative Action Unnecessary
by Paula Allen-Meares
"We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today."
-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in upholding Moderate version of affirmative action at the University of Michigan in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of our generation on race.
This quotation started the op-ed piece I wrote for the Detroit Free Press published November 5, 2003. At the time I pointed out how Justice O'Connor simplified the need for affirmative action protections to a mere expectation. As I said then - and still feel two and a half years later - if only it were that easy.
As the State of Michigan, like the State of California before us, braces for a vote on the "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative," citizens face two challenges: on the one hand, an ensuing debate about race, gender, and leveling the playing field tipped by years of oppression; and on the other hand an honest look at our world to examine the institutionalized disparities that require society to ensure fairness and equality in the form of affirmative action.
Just as Justice O'Connor's suggestion that more funding be aimed at providing 25 years of Head Start Programs wasn't perfect, neither is affirmative action. It is, however, one option that can help to heal what ails us as a nation of diverse people.
Education is, obviously, another option that can equip citizens with the skills necessary to compete in our own diverse and unique economic system, as well as emerging global economies. However, my previous examination of Justice O'Connor's plan - to hypothetically superfund Head Start programs with the hope that this will ensure future equal educational opportunities for all races - highlighted that, 50 years after the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown v. The Board of Education, education for the races is unequal, separate or not.
Previously I noted that less than half of eligible children and families are actually served by Head Start programming, in part because of ongoing budget cuts. Even with Justice O'Connor's theoretical financial backing, Head Start would still reach only a small percentage of the children and families who would benefit from it the most. Add to this the fact that even graduates of a successful Head Start program quite often are sent on to schools that are both racially and economically segregated. Where is the equality that affirmative action opponents find inherent in our current system?
Unfortunately, communities are seeing further movements toward the resegregation of our schools, and Michigan is not unique in its experiences. Thirty years after another Supreme Court case, Swann v. Board of Education, brought desegregation and busing back into the spotlight there is a return movement to "neighborhood" schools and the growth of charter schools. At first blush a school closer to home seems fine - a shorter morning commute, easier access for parents, etc. Some charter schools are flourishing, with students receiving an outstanding education and even exceeding national standards..
But, behind this wonderful picture remains the fact that neighborhood schools rarely embrace a diverse student population. Rarely do affluent, and quite often white, students remain in schools surrounded by poverty and lack of infrastructure. And often when they return to their own neighborhoods, they take with them their contribution to the tax base, further eroding the neighborhood school. Charter schools too look lovely on this side of the picture. However, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University reports that most charter schools are more segregated than the public schools students have left. The taxpayer is thus supporting Brown's separate but equal notion instead of investing in the infrastructure, curriculum, and teaching staff of already existing schools, leaving those in the neighborhood schools truly left behind.
Racism at all levels of society hinders minorities. There is something silent and unspoken about racism, something embedded but visible just beneath the American surface. Economics, too, play their own role in oppression, but quite often, racial inequality goes hand in hand with poverty.
Funding Head Start is an opportunity we should seize, but until we can sustain in that Head Start with continued quality education and opportunity, minorities will still face road blocks that others may not. Affirmative action does not tip the scales in favor of minorities, it just gives them a chance to compete on the same level field when they bring with them the skills and talent to play the game.
Children still must study in gang infested neighborhoods. Minorities still make up the majority of prisoners. Hurricane Katrina offered us a snapshot of what it was like to be black, poor, and a victim of not only a storm, but a society that is separate, but also remains unequal.
Affirmative action won't become unnecessary by constitutionally banning it. It will only become unnecessary with increased social and economic action, action that has the power to assure equality.
The eradication of affirmative action may not take place in 25 years, but with action, an organized voice, and the power of the constituency to vote � especially on November 7 - we can all take a stand to change the roots of the much deeper social problems of racial and economic injustice. Let's not make affirmative action unnecessary by an act of law, let's make it unnecessary through true social change.
CONTACT: Dean Paula Allen-Meares 734 764-5347
Lynn Jondahl 517 381-3433
Paula Allen-Meares is Dean, Norma Radin Collegiate Professor of Social Work, and Professor of Education at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include the tasks and functions of social workers employed in educational settings; psychopathology in children, adolescents, and families; adolescent sexuality; improving the mental health/health of poor children and adolescents of color; adolescent pregnancy; and the strengths of African-American parents and communities. Among other honors and service opportunities, Dean Allen-Meares is presently appointed to the New York Academy of Medicine�s panel on long-term care issues in the United States, and serves as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
For further information, contact:
Peter Eckstein
Lynn Jondahl (517) 381-3433
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