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Affirmative Action Painted Black Only in the Media Executive Order 11246 (as amended, 11375) requires that affirmative action programs be in place for women and minorities. This federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin. Most of America's workforce has benefited from affirmative action programs: white women, veterans with disabilities, adults with disabilities, the elderly, foreigners, and many ethnic groups. Potential beneficiaries of affirmative action programs include Arnold Swarztenegger, Mel Gibson, Jim Carrey, Christopher Reeves, and Martha Stewart; all these people qualify for a minority loan or could be counted as minorities to meet Hollywood affirmative action quotas. And many people who own swap meets, convenience stores, nail shops-you name it-have received minority business loans.Notwithstanding affirmative action's wide brush, whenever the topic is discussed in the media in terms of "unqualified persons" displacing "qualified" white males, the background pictures or anecdotes usually deal with African-Americans. This misplaced emphasis gives viewers or readers the false impression that affirmative action is only an African-American issue and that African-Americans can only get ahead with help. Yet ask any honest successful African-American in any field, and he or she will tell you that affirmative action quotas don't get you there. Those quotas can be bypassed and filled in any number of ways. Instead, what gets you there is working hard, being the best, and proving yourself over and over again.
Here's a personal example, as told to me by a friend who works as an ER
doctor. He was in the ER when another doctor (a white) told a white woman in
her 60's that she needed an emergency appendectomy. She immediately announced
that she wanted my friend to perform the surgery. Startled by this demand,
the white doctor asked why. She responded, "He's colored ain't he? He had to
get much higher grades to get the same job you have." Point well taken. |
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