The stated justification for “affirmative action” programs in higher education (that is, race-based admission policies) is that they’re necessary in order to make society more fair. But as Jonah Goldberg argues hereaffirmative action creates palpable unfairness to Asian students while purporting to remedy a problem that is just a statistical construct — the “underrepresentation” of blacks, and hispanics.
It’s a sharply-written piece; well worth reading.
Affirmative action isn’t really about “fairness.” It’s about power.
While we’re on the subject of affirmative action, it’s worth noting the reaction to campus leftists to the clear evidence that they are OVERrepresented on college faculties. Whereas everywhere else, it’s a moral imperative with them that groups of people must be selected so that the body “looks like America” and no obstructionist arguments based on competence are allowable, when it comes to their own domain, they’re adamant that they alone can judge who is fit to teach. The “looks like America” mantra just doesn’t apply to philosophy. The same bunch of people that’s happy to have laws dictating that businesses must hire by quotas is frantic over the notion that universities might be asked to stop discriminating against non-leftists.
I don’t want to see universities compelled to hire by any quota and I don’t think anyone seriously does. The campus left is crying wolf here. It is fun, though, to see the double standards at work.
