In response to the two comments from J. Miller and M. Randolph on affirmative action, I want to point out some major flaws that are used in building their points.
First, a few ideas were misunderstood. Sure a minority can be less than half. In the case of racism, however, a minority would be a group that differs from the majority and is under the controlling group. Both Miller and Randolph are male, the obvious group in power now and in the past.
Randolph also mentioned that he is a white male with German, Czech and Scottish backgrounds. Funny how your "minorities" appear only when they are an advantage to you. Drayton and other black people cannot hide their minority and certainly do not appear to have darker skin whenever affirmative action might benefit them. In studying oppressed groups, the definition of minority is a group that does not have the same access to the privileges enjoyed by the group in power.
As a white male also -- British, German and Scottish in background -- I am similar to you. What makes us different though, is our own awareness of privilege. Every hour I experience many forms of advantages I receive from being a male, white, able-bodied, slim -- the list goes on. I choose to see these privileges given to me and not others, unfairly, which is difficult.
Anytime a person or group is in power, it is difficult to give up the benefits they receive from their power, especially if undeserved. My point is this. Affirmative action is not "stealing" jobs and school enrollments from the majority because the majority unfairly has access to them!
If society is already fair , then the majority of the lower socioeconomic classes would not consist of more nonwhite people than white people. Higher education and the wealthiest job positions would not be disproportionately white men. Read Peggy McIntosh's article "White Privilege" to fully understand the impact of this new form of prejudice that is hard to see in everyday passing.
Affirmative action, though not the most fair or perfect system, is striving to give a more equal advantage to a group of people. Generally, white people have an easier time in school and work because of privilege, usually from parents and families that have more wealth and higher education on average.
From personal experience, having two parents and being middle class has made life less challenging for me. If employers and schools took into account the hardships fairly that each individual faces due to privilege or lack thereof, there would be no need for affirmative action or something like it.
But how can anyone know or understand each hardship and how they impacted an individual? It is nearly impossible. This is the only major system we have to make it "fair."
