Affirmative Action Should Come To An End

Senator James Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, has written an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal dated 23 July 2010, in which he decries the continuing discrimination in America against white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. This anti-white discrimination has been going on since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it was put into place by the Johnson administration. Discriminatory policies against these WASP’s have effected males more than females. They have effectively prevented the hiring and college admissions of qualified Whites in preference to Blacks and other ethnic groups.

As Senator Webb and others have pointed out, this administration-initiated preference was justifiable in 1964 and for years afterwards because of an obvious discrimination bias against Blacks in the university and work-place environment. Shelby Steele, a preeminent Black sociologist from the University of California system, has written that affirmative action has done its job and now should be discontinued. The reason is that it is allowing Blacks and other minority ethnic groups to enter education programs with lower qualifications than whites at all levels of upper education, and this assures the outcome of lesser qualification upon graduation of Blacks when compared to Whites. In other words, Black Ph.D.’s, M.D.’s, R.N.’s, etc. come out of their training programs with lesser abilities than their White competitors. It is time for us to get away from affirmative action and admit all comers to universities and the job market on the grounds of their actual qualifications instead of on their ethnic background. Qualified Blacks can stand up on their own against qualified Whites; and both groups would benefit from a discontinuation of affirmative action policies.