Ten years ago, I went to see Coleman A. Young, who had been mayor of Detroit for twenty years.
He was a man usually seen in, no pun intended, stark black and white terms. Vast numbers of whites in the suburbs thought he was the devil. And then there were those who really disliked him. On the other hand, older members of Detroit’s African-American community largely regarded him as a cross between Moses and the Messiah. My feelings were somewhere in between.
What I did know was that even in his old age, Coleman Young was a supremely intelligent man, especially when he didn’t let his own baggage get in the way of understanding.
This was a man who had managed to make it to the top in an era of legally segregation and virulent racism. Those days were gone. Did we still need affirmative action? I asked him.
If so, how much longer would we need it for? I knew I risked an outburst of his famous temper. He had a sign on his desk that said MFIC, and the IC stood for In Charge.
But he chuckled. “Let’s say you have a guy who has been chained in the basement for four hundred years,” he told me. “He’s shackled and can’t walk around.”
So, the mayor said, “one day you unchain him, lead him to the track, and say, “okay, sorry about that, now it’s a level playing field, and you get to race an Olympic athlete.”
“Do you think that would be fair?’
I saw his point, and agreed. But I don’t like it when black leaders label everyone who opposes affirmative action as a racist. I am convinced Carl Cohen, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan, opposes affirmative action out of honest intellectual conviction.
However -- I also remember when African-Americans couldn’t go to some state universities at all. I understand Jennifer Gratz being unhappy because she couldn’t get into the U of M.
But you know what? I went to high school with two kids just like me. One died at Da Nang, and one at Hamburger Hill, and here I am.
President Kennedy put it best, I think. “Life is unfair,” he once told a startled reporter who was expecting the usual political blather. But, he added, “every man can make a difference, and every man should try.”
First of all, affirmative action is not a rising tide that lifts all minority boats; Asians and Jews and Muslims get no help. Some might argue that they don't need any, but they are minorities, just like blacks and Hispanics.
The better questions, especially as regards higher education, resolve around why blacks and Hispanics need affirmative action. Coleman Young talked about of being chained up, but if blacks are chained now, it's by their own cultural priorities, as cited by no less an authority than William Cosby, Ph.D.
Asian and Jewish parents generally teach their kids that sports are fun, but not as a lifetime activity. Education is stressed in those cultures. More importantly, Asian and Jewish kids have it drummed into their heads that demanding a level playing field is a waste of time; if you want to get half the recognition given to the WASPs, you'll have to work twice as hard and be twice as good, so good that you can't be denied.
Then, maybe after a few generations, there'll be a level playing field. Somewhere along the way, 40 years ago when the NAACP purged itself of its Jewish roots and affiliations, and the notions of Black Power and Black is Beautiful gained currency, the sense of entitlement grew in black culture.
Anything but a color-, sex-, ethnicity-, and religion-blind center is discriminatory. Racism is a zero-sum game.
No, life isn't fair, but that's because the rules don't get enforced. Making unfair rules just exacerbates the problem.
Posted by: Nat | November 02, 2005 at 03:27 PM