So Barack Obama is going to be nominated (officially) as the Democratic candidate for the US Presidency this week. A historic moment, one might say. But not everyone is happy. Some folks think that his candidacy (and possible win) will actually make it harder to advance anti-racist (i.e. anti-black) policies and programmes.
And of course, if he hadn’t won the nomination or if he doesn’t win the election, it’ll be because too many Americans are racist and therefore more affirmative action-type steps need to be taken to give black Americans a chance.
Racism, discrimination, and the US’ history with it is pretty damned complex and I am far from an expert (wouldn’t it be nice to be an expert in something for once), and since I’m in an ethnic minority for the moment, please allow me to vent: it sounds as though PC affirmative action-types are determined to be victims, no matter what good news there is.
If I was a US citizen I would probably support Barack Obama, since electing someone with a family history of political achievement (Bush) doesn’t seem to have worked out too well in the ‘good governance’ stakes. Obama’s message of hope and change is indeed very inspiring. Equality and anti-discrimination activists should be concentrating on making things fair for every person who is disadvantaged, not making things more fair for people who are perceived to be disadvantaged because they are black.
I think a huge disservice has been done to the cause of equality by affirmative action — making a particular group of people even more different by demanding they be treated differently, better, because they are different? The whole point is to level the playing field, irrespective of race, creed, gender, or (where reasonable) physical ability. Black, Hispanic, or Asian Americans might sometimes rightly think they have been passed over for university entry, a job, a promotion, because they were black, but wouldn’t their peers also be rightly aggrieved if they were prevented from advancing in their professional lives because there was a candidate “of colour” with equal skills and experience and the organisation had a strong affirmative action policy?
No equality doctrine is going to be perfect, but I think after all this time with a strong civil rights movement, there needs to be a shift in thinking. Policies need to be aimed at children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, say those whose parent(s) can’t afford to nurture them because they have to work so they can eat, or whose parent(s) are deliberately neglectful (for whatever reason), or they have a physical disability, and so on. Give them as good a chance as possible to be educated well, and once they finish their education (secondary, tertiary, or vocational), it becomes up to them to make the choices to succeed or fail.
If they are raised and educated in a truly fair environment (let’s leave bad parents out of the equation for the moment), discrimination based on uncontrollable factors would definitely be minimised within a few generations, and those who have the drive and ambition to do well will have had every chance, and society will be less distorted.
(But face it, there will always be shitey people around, so bigotry will never be totally eradicated.)
