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PREFERENCES AND
PRIVILEGES
Equal opportunities are not
preferences. This rationale echoes the claims of
those who have always falsely attempted to label steps
toward equality as preferences. Preferences are legal only
under a court or administrative order after a specific
finding of discrimination. Even in those cases the remedy
must be narrowly tailored to ensure that it does not trammel
the interest of white males.
If passed, Proposition 107
will immediately re-establish the old norms—which are
barriers, which is unequal opportunity. This will return
the participation of women and people of color in public
education, public employment or public contracting to the
token level that existed forty years ago—the “door will be
shut.”
While the opponents are
entitled to their own set of opinions (opportunity equals
preferences), they’re not entitled to their own set of
facts.
Is there hard evidence that
white males are hurt by equal opportunity? No. Over the
course of four decades of the program, white males
educational attainment has increased. Have women and people
of color reached parity with white males in employment and
income? Not even close. In fact, during this recession,
women and people of color lag behind white males for
higher-paying jobs at the largest rates in a decade. Income
inequality is at an all time high. Between 1976 and 2007,
58% of real growth income went to the top 1% households in
the nation.
Equal Opportunity programs
are only a small part of the spectrum of preferential
treatment in the U.S.
-
Tax breaks for
corporations
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Subsidies for
middle-class homebuyers
-
Bank bailouts
-
Mass transit subsidies
for white suburbs
-
Price supports for
corporate farms
-
Tax breaks for the
wealthiest households
The system of racial
preference that operates to the benefit of white males
affects every realm of life in this country. “Whites are
most commonly unaware of their “privilege” and the manner in
which their culture has always been dominant in the U.S. as
they do not identify as members of a specific racial group
but rather incorrectly perceive their views and culture as “raceless”,
when in fact it is ethnonational (ethnic/cultural) specific,
with a racial base component.
The freedom movement elevated
the moral level of the nation, but women and people of color
still face levels of artificial barriers to advancement:
societal barriers, including both conscious and unconscious
stereotyping, prejudice and bias.
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www.nakedcapitalism.com/…/58-of-real-income-growth-since-1976-went-to-top-1-why-that-matters.html
Seidman, S. (2004). Critical
Race Theory In Contested Knowledge: Social Theory Today
(pp.231-243) Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. |
