November 1st, 2022 | Thomas Carter

Ending affirmative action is the right thing to do

Basing college and employment entries on race was always wrong.

I was always taught that being progressive meant being inclusive, anti-racist and egalitarian on social policies. If that is true, repealing and ending the archaic and outdated practice of affirmative action is the right thing to do.

Affirmative Action was started by Kennedy Democrats in 1961 with well-placed intentions. The idea that employers should disregard and exclude race from their hiring protocols was highly progressive and modern for the time, however, the laws signed by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson have since been misused and abused by judges and lawmakers. Colleges and employers have since used racial and income quotas to attract and enroll students and employers in the name of anti-racism and inclusion. This dates back to 2003, when the Supreme Court ruled that colleges could begin considering race and adversity when enrolling and admitting students. Ever since, this practice has been encouraged and held in high regard by sanctimonious deans and professors.

It is important to understand how Affirmative Action started when talking about what it has become.

What would have been the very reason Kennedy signed the law in the first place, colleges around America have quietly created rules around income and racial inequality when admitting students. Under the guise of equality and the idea that some races and minorities are at a disadvantage, colleges across the country have adhered to racial and income policies to fill arbitrary quotas for enrollment among women and minorities.

From what began as an executive order to stop discrimination emerged a new culture centered around "creating" opportunities for ethnic and gender groups that are viewed as disadvantaged. Rather than removing the barriers faced by blacks by merely outlawing racial discrimination, as the law originally intended, the idea of taking down barriers has been extended to lowering SAT requirements and tuition fees based on a person's race.

At their core, these policies are horrific and racist.

A 2015 study by researchers at Princeton found that, on average, black Americans received 230 point boosts on their SATs for college and university admissions, while Asian Americans were penalized up to 50 points. The study's purpose was described in The Daily Pennsylvanian:

"According to the authors (Thomas J. Espenshade, Chang Y. Chung and Joan L. Walling), the objective of the study was to examine 'how preferences for different types of applicants exercised by admission offices at elite universities influence the number and composition of admitted students.' In essence, the study attempts to quantify how much an applicant’s race is worth using SAT scores as a benchmark."

These policies pierce deep into the heart of John F. Kennedy's original 1961 executive order. The "positive measures" promoted by Kennedy in his order were not likely to have been an encouragement of the grotesque and racist policies we are seeing today. The word "quota" never appears in the order.

Some may argue that none of these policies truly represent Kennedy's vision, or the real essence of Affirmative Action as it was set forth by Democrats in 1961. Similar laws and racial quotas have been in place across Europe for the better part of the Century, but one such law was struck down in Sweden in 2006 when the Swedish courts ruled that the "requirements for intake should be the same for all".

The best thing to happen now would be the complete repeal of federal Affirmative Action laws that legalize racial quotas. It would reset the gameboard and require states and Congress to start with a clean slate. The U.S. Supreme Court can start by repealing Grutter v. Bollinger and then stretch back further to right the wrongs created by progressive radicals.

John F. Kennedy sought to promote equal opportunities for blacks in America by barring discrimination based on race. He never sought to create opportunities by promoting degrading, racist quotas and guidelines that suggest blacks are not intelligent enough to meet the same requirements as whites and Asians.

As the definition of Affirmative Action changes and varies across the world, the practice of lowering the bar for racial minorities will never stop being racist.