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Liberty and justice for all, or just for some?

There are students and faculty at this college who may remember a time when our country was segregated. Of those who don't, probably their parents, and almost certainly their grandparents, remember when "separate but equal" was America's standard.

It was during the tumultuous civil rights movement of the 1960s when people with the will to create a change made it their mission to move past that archaic way of thinking. One of the many results of that change is affirmative action.

The Congressional Research Service cites the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which "prohibits racial or ethnic discrimination in all federally assisted programs and activities, including public or private educational institutions," as the foundation for what we now call affirmative action. Gregory T. Chambers, president of the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), describes affirmative action as a management tool dedicated to inclusivity for employers to analyze their workforce and determine how people are represented in terms of race, gender, availability, and expertise.

As schools and businesses were encouraged to take "affirmative action" to achieve diversification of their employee and student bodies, positions and benefits were set aside for those qualified individuals who were previously at a severe disadvantage.

From this well-intentioned legislation, a different issue has arisen. A number of organizations, including the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), maintain that by allotting job positions, scholarships, financial aid, and other benefits to individuals of a certain gender or ethnicity is its own kind of discrimination.

“There has been a lot of misinformation over the years about affirmative action in terms of it being about quotas and preferential treatment,” Chambers said. “That’s the furthest thing from the truth.”

Ward Connerly, however, an African-American and the founder and president of the ACRI, spoke to students at Wesleyan University on Nov. 8, 2010 about his active opposition to affirmative action.

"We have to shed the practice of classifying people on skin color, how they spell their last names, or gender bias," Connerly said. "As Sandra Day O’Connor says, we cannot enshrine into our laws something the Constitution barely tolerates."

Connerly's speech to the students was given just six days after Arizona passed Proposition 107 on Nov. 2, outlawing Affirmative Action in that state. With the passing of this new legislation, Arizona joins California, Washington, Michigan and Nebraska in making what those states consider preferential treatment based on ethnicity or gender illegal.

The new Arizona law reads: "This state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting." In response to Arizona's new legislation, the AAAA, led by Chambers, denounced the proposition in a press release claiming, "The sponsors of this unfortunate legislation misrepresented affirmative action and equal opportunity programs as denying opportunities for some, when these laws are intended to level the playing field that has been uneven for centuries."

Chambers said he considers it the job of the AAAA to communicate with organizations and communities throughout the country in an attempt to combat and dispel what he considers myths about affirmative action.

Nevertheless, in a rebuttal to an op-ed piece from the Salt Lake Tribune published on Nov. 27, 2010, Connerly maintains that by fighting in favor of equal treatment for everyone, regardless of the color of their skin, his organization is being true to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

DCCC offers courses that discuss the topic of race and gender discrimination, one of which is taught by Dr. Adriana Bohm, assistant professor of sociology.

“At the top, the attempts to equalize the playing field haven’t panned out yet,” Bohm said. “To say that we should get rid of these policies when racism hasn’t been eradicated is problematic.”

Bohm said that affirmative action has taken on a racial component, but there is a gender component that people don’t talk about. A report from the U.S. Department of Labor states that white women are actually the largest demographic to benefit from affirmative action programs.

"Most people are surprised when I say that in class," Bohm said. "Most people think affirmative action is for blacks that are unqualified, and so they don't see whites as benefitting."

Chambers calls this an "indicator that there has been misinformation" concerning affirmative action and who it benefits.

However, while new laws making affirmative action illegal are being debated, proposed, passed or rejected all over our country, awareness of the issue here at DCCC appears to be limited.

In an informal survey of 30 DCCC students and faculty conducted by Communitarian staff, only 18 participants had heard of affirmative action. Of those 18 individuals, only eight understood the meaning of the legislation.

“If there hasn’t been any connection in terms of your upbringing and your relationships, you’re sometimes not aware of [affirmative action],” Chambers said. “We have to do a better job of communicating the issues and the programs.”

One student who took the survey said that affirmative action does not represent equality; it's a form of discrimination.

"We hear information from the media that may or may not be accurate," Bohm said. "A lot of people think that affirmative action is a quota based policy that states that X number of people have to be black on your staff, and X number of people have to be female, and that's not true."

For now, the debate continues.

“Most of us in this business would like to see those circumstances [where affirmative action is no longer necessary],” Chambers said. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get to that point, but I think we can minimize it much more than it is now.”

Contact Joseph Van Dusen at communitarian@mail.dccc.edu

The Communitarian Opinion Policy: The opinions expressed on the editorial and the op-ed pages do not necessarily reflect those of The Communitarian staff or college. We welcome your comments on any matter relating to Delaware County Community College, and responsible rebuttal is encouraged. Write to communitarian@mail.dccc.edu. Please write “letter to editor” in the subject box.