The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to eliminate discrimination in the workplace and educational institutions. But it didn’t happen voluntarily. Affirmative action was a means to enforce that law by demanding opportunities be given to otherwise under represented groups of people from differing ethnicities, genders and cultural backgrounds in academia and the work force. Failure to meet certain requirements could result in the loss of government funding or contracts.
It was a way to even the scales that had for far too long been overwhelming in favor of white, wealthy men.
It meant encouraging diversification by giving qualified individuals preference when two equal parties were involved.
There was no “affirmative action” curriculum.
There was no “affirmative action” job description.
Those chosen, for any reason, were expected to make the grade, do the job, or leave. The only leg up was a chance to be seen, heard and allowed entrance when the qualifications were met. Once in, they had to meet the same standards and rigors as everyone else.
All it did was finally give people of color, women and differing cultural backgrounds the same playing field as legacy families and those with money and affluence. Yet the implication was always clear, they were given a free pass or held to lower standards. Judged at every turn they constantly had to prove themselves and exceed expectations.
According to polls, the majority of Americans, support affirmative action. Take race, gender and culture out of the picture and many colleges have shown their minority numbers drop significantly. In Michigan when they started a “race neutral” admissions program their Black population on campus dropped 44% even when the population of eligible students grew.
One-quarter of the world’s countries have some form of affirmative action. A means to bridge inequities in employment, pay, education and redress long standing wrongs or hindrances. Even the European Union approved a plan in 2012 to encourage a goal of having 40% of non-executive board directorships be women.
But here in the U.S., the Supreme Court overturned a 50 year precedence and made it unlawful last month. Our educational systems are gatekeepers to power in America. And the elite institutions far more so. Eight of the nine justices attended law school at Harvard or Yale. This ruling made acquiring the keys for entry that much harder.
Yet it did not apply these same rules to the military where diversity has long been a priority in order to avoid a situation where officers consistently have far different backgrounds than the enlisted troops. The court justified this carve out because it saw a need for a diverse officer corp. in 2023 while 19% of enlisted men were black, only 8% were officers.
So it’s important for National security but not our country in general?
There’s no question affirmative action helped. But no where near what was needed.
- In 1968, before bussing to integrate schools started, 64% of black students attended schools where 90% of the student body were those of color.
- By 1988 it had dropped to 32%.
- In 2016, 53% of students across the country were enrolled in districts that were not racially diverse, meaning the school population was either more than 75% Caucasian or more than 75% non white.
Affirmative action wasn’t a cure all. But it was better than nothing.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg was only one of nine women accepted to the Harvard law class of 1956. 525 were white men. In 1970 women were only 19% of first year law students across the country. Now they make up 49%. In 1970 5% of medical school applicants were women. In 2022 56% were women and we now make up 35% of the workforce.
From 1930 to 1970 only 14,000 women graduated medical school. But from 1970 to 1980 over 20,000 graduated. I was one of them. For the first time admission questions couldn’t include,
“Did you intend to marry?”
“Have children?”
Or worse yet,
“Why should you get a space if you’ll just abandon later for family?”
After decades of practice that clearly wasn’t the case.
Until we are color, gender and culturally blind affirmative action was a necessary tool to encourage diversity. Without it we tend to hire and admit only those who look like us. Without it’s guiding hand I fear the minimal balance it provided will evaporate.
Diversity enriches every aspect of our lives. There’s no question my own field became a better, kinder more open profession when women and different races and cultures were added to the mix. The only way societies evolve, thrive and grow is by raising everyone up. Giving everyone the same opportunities. Without that we stagnate.
