Michael Kinsley: Say No to Class War
Opponents and supporters of affirmative action all carry a picture in their heads of how things should work. In this picture, everyone in the world is lined up, from No. 1 to No. 7 billion, in order of their qualifications for a job, admission to a university or whatever. The job goes to the first person in line who wants it. Opponents of affirmative action say it's unfair to let anyone jump ahead because of his or her race. Supporters say, Unfair? Are you kidding? Affirmative action just gives people the same places in line they would have had if there had been equal opportunity.
This picture is wrong in many ways. What makes someone good in a job depends on a variety of factors that are hard to define or measure. They can't be used to line people up on the basis of a variable called "qualifications." Furthermore, race, or at least a diversity of racial backgrounds, often is a qualification. Finally, the benefits of affirmative action sometimes go to people who have already had equal opportunity and more.
Because racial affirmative action is such a raw sore on our body politic, some advocate a modification: affirmative action by social class. If you were raised barefoot and poor, you move up the line, past children of the rich and the upper middle class, no matter what your race or theirs. The idea is tempting. It would take race out of the picture. It would eliminate the galling (though still rare) sight of blacks from privileged backgrounds marching into Princeton past the crumpled bodies of working-class whites with higher sat scores. And it would be truer to the principle of equal opportunity. It would be fairer. Barack Obama has half endorsed the idea, saying his own privileged daughters don't deserve the benefits of affirmative action. John McCain's views have been too contradictory to know for certain, but he also could be interpreted as being favorably inclined to something like this.
It's a terrible idea. It would do nothing about the principal complaint people have about affirmative action: that it violates the principle of merit. People with better qualifications would still lose jobs and university slots to people with worse qualifications, and their resentment probably wouldn't be mollified by the fact that the beneficiaries of this policy might be white. Moreover, it would put America in the business of labeling people and rewarding them according to a criterion--social class--which would be a nightmare possibly even worse than race....
Read entire article at Time
This picture is wrong in many ways. What makes someone good in a job depends on a variety of factors that are hard to define or measure. They can't be used to line people up on the basis of a variable called "qualifications." Furthermore, race, or at least a diversity of racial backgrounds, often is a qualification. Finally, the benefits of affirmative action sometimes go to people who have already had equal opportunity and more.
Because racial affirmative action is such a raw sore on our body politic, some advocate a modification: affirmative action by social class. If you were raised barefoot and poor, you move up the line, past children of the rich and the upper middle class, no matter what your race or theirs. The idea is tempting. It would take race out of the picture. It would eliminate the galling (though still rare) sight of blacks from privileged backgrounds marching into Princeton past the crumpled bodies of working-class whites with higher sat scores. And it would be truer to the principle of equal opportunity. It would be fairer. Barack Obama has half endorsed the idea, saying his own privileged daughters don't deserve the benefits of affirmative action. John McCain's views have been too contradictory to know for certain, but he also could be interpreted as being favorably inclined to something like this.
It's a terrible idea. It would do nothing about the principal complaint people have about affirmative action: that it violates the principle of merit. People with better qualifications would still lose jobs and university slots to people with worse qualifications, and their resentment probably wouldn't be mollified by the fact that the beneficiaries of this policy might be white. Moreover, it would put America in the business of labeling people and rewarding them according to a criterion--social class--which would be a nightmare possibly even worse than race....