A national survey last week by Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Connecticut, revealed that 69 percent of whites are opposed to Affirmative Action programs for blacks -- in hiring, promotion and college entry.
What was most revealing is that the survey also exploded the myth that young people in this country have moved beyond considerations of race in economic, social and educational issues.
In fact, 51 percent of those 18-34, and 63 percent of those 35-54, also said they are opposed to Affirmative Action for blacks -- Barack Obama, or no Barack Obama.
Here’s the thing that ticks me off the most about surveys such as Quinnipiac’s: Before you can produce meaningful research results about “Affirmative Action” programs, the people being interviewed and the interviewers themselves, should understand the history and the nature of the race-based economic, educational and social problems that black folks have faced here, in America, virtually from the time we were “off-loaded” from the slave ships.
Equal educational opportunity? That was, of course, absolutely unheard of (and illegal) for slaves. Such opportunity was also severely limited even following the Emancipation Proclamation, in 1863.
If they wanted a decent education in the post-slavery era, black folks had to be taught at separate, lesser-equipped, black-only, primary and secondary schools and the very few who were permitted to attend college went, in the main, to what are now known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s).
Post-Brown vs. Board of Education, whites in the North and South, created a network of new, “private schools” so that their babies would not have to be educated while seated next to black babies.
Prior to that, with the introduction of the Federal Housing Administration, low-down-payment mortgages had finally been made available to American home buyers, converting the country to “majority home-ownership” as compared to “majority renter” status. However, federal and commercial bank underwriting standards prohibited loans in substantially black neighborhoods, or in those that were adjacent to substantially black neighborhoods. Language excluding loans to “lower-class occupants” and “inharmonious racial groups” made FHA lenders’ “intentions” very clear.
As a result, whites seeking the more attractive FHA mortgages found it necessary to flee the urban centers and move to the suburbs to qualify for home loans.
When they left, of course, they took with them their property tax revenues, which were being used, primarily, to fund public school systems.
Consequently, a significant number of the country’s larger cities became predominantly black and minority, and their school districts – because blacks and minorities had lower-paying jobs, smaller houses and paid less in property taxes – became financially challenged.
To compound the problem, the best teachers and largest school budgets also fled the urban centers for the suburbs and the quality of education for predominantly black school districts went into a tailspin.
Not surprisingly, therefore, “America’s Promise Alliance” has reported that the average high school graduation rate in the nation’s 50 largest cities stands at 53 percent, compared to 71 percent in their suburbs.
The best private schools and best/most expensive universities have, as a result, been virtually inaccessible to blacks unless there has been a special effort in place to bring inclusiveness and diversity to their campuses.
Let’s move now to economic opportunity. Because African Americans have had lesser access to better schools and have also been excluded from certain crafts and professions, today, the black unemployment rate has climbed to 14.9 percent, as compared to the national, white unemployment rate, which stands, currently, at 8.6 percent.
Without a special effort in place to break those negative cycles and to provide training and job opportunities, the national black community and, by extension, most of the country’s largest urban centers, are doomed to having dramatically under-performing economies and a special predisposition to property crime and other social unrest.
That’s not just the ungentrified parts of Harlem, that’s New York City. That’s not just South Central, that’s the overall economy of Los Angeles; that’s not just “The Bottom,” that’s the entire Philadelphia economy that are at risk, as a result.
In addition, even though we now have 1.2 million black-owned businesses in the U.S., those firms generate just one half of one percent of the country’s overall gross receipts. So, there is, apparently, still a great deal of work to be done to achieve a “level playing field” for black-owned companies.
Despite that, white survey respondents still seem to believe, according to assistant polling detector at Quinnipiac, Peter Brown, “that the statute of limitations on past wrongs has run out.”
The concept that we are dealing with “past wrongs,” of course, is ludicrous. The “wrongs” we’re being frustrated, excluded and impoverished by are not of the past; they are very much a part of the present, and getting worse every day.
Preferences.
When asked, that’s what white survey respondents said they choose to call “Affirmative Action.”
Did blacks “prefer” to be shipped from Western Africa to slave plantations on the East Coast of North America? Did they “prefer” to be prohibited, by law, from learning to read and write? Do they “prefer,” today, to be excluded from construction work sites, corporate management positions and contract opportunities? Do they “prefer” to have people from outside their own neighborhood importing illicit drugs and weapons onto their streets? Do blacks “prefer” to have the best-qualified public school teachers unavailable to teach their children?
Why is it, then, that 65 percent of Republicans, 64 percent of “Born-Again” Evangelicals, 61percent of white Protestants and 61percent of white Catholics believe that programs that reduce discrimination, segregation and race-based economic inclusion should be described as a negative “preference?”
Earlier on, I said white voters oppose Affirmative Action, “Barack Obama or not.” That’s because the Quinnipiac data revealed that President Obama’s election has had virtually no impact on white voters’ feelings about the need for fair economic and educational access for black people.
Indeed, when asked specifically if President Obama’s election made them more or less likely to support the continuation of Affirmative Action Programs, only 4 percent of whites said they were now "more likely" to be supportive, 12 percent said they were now "less likely” and 82 percent said the election made no change at all in their views on Affirmative Action.
It appears, as I always suspected, that the election of Barack Obama was not some heavenly sign that the nation had somehow, overnight, developed a more mature, fair and reasonable approach to dealing with its racial issues.
It’s way more likely that Mr. Obama’s election had more to do with the fact that he was running as the polar, political opposite of George W. Bush, who was, arguably, the single worst and least effective president in U.S. history. In addition, Mr. Obama’s opponent, John McCain, curiously, could find no fault, at all, in Mr. Bush’s lackluster track record. Throw in the fact that black voters, who represented 13 percent of the electorate in November, gave Mr. Obama 96 percent of their vote and you have an Obama victory; but certainly, it’s obvious now, that no decision was being made by white voters on Election Day that they were also voting to eliminate the last vestiges of racism in America.
I hope we’re all paying attention to the size of the job that still has to be done to bring good, common sense about the continuing need for inclusion programs to the majority of our non-black neighbors.
That, by the way, includes your president.
When you see him, please remind him that, no matter how politically expedient it may appear to him and his advisors, ignoring America's long-standing, race-based disparities and eliminating what's still left of the country's diversity programs may be a fatal mistake for the nation, as a whole.
Maybe he’ll listen to you. After all, you did vote for him.
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