Does Affirmative Action Perpetuate Racism?

Affirmative Action as we know it has served its original purpose; without revision it will ultimately perpetuate the racism and oppression that it was designed to destroy. The original purpose of Affirmative Action is to provide special consideration for qualified, under-represented women and minorities in education, employment and awarding contracts to compensate for historical and institutional racism, discrimination and oppression by white males.

Even though the face value of this policy appears to give women and minorities a long overdue short cut in the line of opportunities on the ride to their dreams; it is really an illusion of fairness that causes them to forget and overlook who owns the amusement park in the first place. Affirmative Action should not focus on giving under- represented populations short-cuts to the front of the line-but provide them with the psychological and educational tools that will allow them to design their own rides and build their own amusement park.

The current Affirmative Action policy is punitive in nature because it suggests that all white males are powerful, wealthy racists who oppress women and minorities. And if they do not personally have these characteristics, some white male in their family lineage did or will have these characteristics in the future for which they must be punished by exclusion. This policy also assumes that simply because he is a white male, he is automatically intellectually and financially superior to women and minorities. Additionally, everything that he wants will easily come to him without hard work, struggle and sacrifice because other white males in dominate positions anxiously wait to anoint his every desire.

This may be true for a small percentage of white males, but I believe that the majority of people regardless of race or gender have worked extremely hard to achieve their goals and dreams. The key to white male success is not that someone gave them the answers to the bar or college entrance exams, but that they share the same work ethic, identity and level of self-esteem as the people who wrote the exams.