AN EVEN PLAYING FIELD

Wow, here we go again. I’ve been away for a while, partly because I’ve been in a writing funk, but mostly because I’ve been busy trying to keep my head above water; doing the dirty work if you will, still working the night shift, and scrubbing cars on my days off, doing whatever I need to do to keep the lights on. Since my last post, a cease fire in South Lebanon was finally implemented, after approximately 1,300 civilian deaths compared to less than 200 deaths on the Israeli side of the conflict. What really caught my attention was the quick reconstruction response from Hezbollah following the ceasefire. Within days of the resolution, Hezbollah men hit the streets with bulldozers and money for the affected people. I’ve already said this once; let’s not sound foolish by calling people terrorists while overlooking what they mean to the people. Click here for a related reconstruction story. Yet one year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, we’re still trying to figure out how to rebuild our own cities. Why has it been such a struggle to get New Orleans back on its feet? Does it have to do with race? Class? Both? Very much so if you ask me. Please watch the Spike Lee documentary “WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE” now airing on HBO. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see for yourself what’s going on down there, this documentary will certainly put things into perspective, click here . So anyways, where am I going with this one? Speaking not only of the Katrina recovery efforts, is it an even playing field for minorities today? Would things be further ahead in the recovery efforts if the socioeconomic status of the affected regions was higher and predominantly white? Is the recovery effort seen differently by different races? Well, if you ask Rockey Vaccarella, he’d tell you things are doing great, and he’s happy with the FEMA trailer he lives in, click here. I watched Vaccarella on the news that day, and I have to admit he was painting a picture that not even the news casters could believe; he was just so thankful for all that’s been done for him. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying not to be thankful for whatever help you get. I’m just saying there are a lot of people in New Orleans that would disagree with Vaccarella’s outlook on the recovery efforts, which is probably why his story made it to the media in first place. How do the people that never got trailers feel about the whole thing? How do the people that will never be able to return the New Orleans because they didn’t have any claim to the land to begin with feel about it? Now they are displaced in a different city, in many cases away from everything they once knew, that includes family. This post is not intended to be strictly on Katrina, but on whether or not an even playing field exists at all even when it comes to something so widely covered such as Katrina one year later.
I often get together with a friend of mine to talk about race relations and whatever hot topic is out there. We often do this while attending a baseball game or we’ll just go out for a few drinks and just go at it. My friend Will, now 50 years-old, is by American standards a white person, his father was Irish, and his mother is Italian. I met Will about 8 years ago, we worked for the same company, but we never hung out together or anything and I sometimes wonder if we would’ve ever clicked as friends had it not been for what I call just a simple twist of fate. One night while I was still in the office, a little old lady showed up looking for her son, Will, who called her stating that his car broke down a couple of miles from the office, he needed her to pick him up. So I wound up escorting the little old lady over to where her son was, and with that act of kindness an odd but good friendship was born. So anyways, I began to discuss different topics with Will the other day, and we were talking about the Gulf Coast recovery efforts, how slow things have moved along, we talked about how badly neglected the people in the region were way before Katrina ever hit land, how that was the real crime. Katrina simply put the decrepit state of the minority population, particularly in New Orleans, on a magnifying glass for the entire world to see. So we got to talking about race relations on a greater scale, and so the question was thrown out there: is there an even playing field for minorities? So a mini debate took place on the welfare system, affirmative action, and the education system.
Of course, my take on the entire subject is that minorities are at a huge disadvantage and the playing field is largely tipped against us minorities. Additionally, programs that attempt to even out the playing field such as affirmative action, are constantly under attack by the ruling majority; these attacks create a great deal of animosity towards minorities and women benefiting from them, it’s almost like you’re being punished over again for being black or for being a woman for that matter. The idea of these baseless attacks is to create the perception that white people are in fact the ones at a disadvantage; let me just say right out that this entire perception is a fallacy, we all know that unemployment rates are much higher among blacks, and minorities do not rank higher than whites in education or income levels. I’ve been trying to get promoted into management at my current employer, and the experience has been one filled with so many disappointments. I’ve been turned down for promotions more than I’d like to admit, and unfortunately I haven’t been given a convincing reason as to why I haven’t made the cut. The feedback has always been positive (to the ear at least), yet I’ve never gotten the job because of some other factor, not my qualifications or ability, I’ve even heard them say it wasn’t the right time. While I was venting with Will in one of our outings, he said to me this: “Don’t worry about it man, these things tend to workout in your favor sometimes”, that was six interviews ago. So then he went on to tell about a situation where he wound up not getting a managerial job over a black female, he said that was a way of companies fulfilling a double quota (women and minorities) with only the hiring of one person. Although this might be true as far how some companies deal with affirmative action, his belief and way of thinking is in line with the white disadvantage perception. In Will’s defense, I can say that he’s a work and progress, he’s admitted to acting racist in his youth, and he’s come a long way, at least he’s not afraid of talking about race relations with a person of color face to face, I don’t know how well he’s doing with his own kind though. According to Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, “If someone uses the phrases “affirmative action” and “reverse discrimination” in the same sentence, it is usually a sign that a lesson on White privilege is needed. This is not to say that everyone who understands White privilege supports affirmative action policies, but at least that basic understanding assures that all parties in the conversation recognize that there are systematic social inequalities operating in our society, and that the playing field is not level”. For a good lesson on White privilege I’d recommend stopping by Changeseeker's blog, whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com , there's a link on my page for her, she’ll break it down for you. So what is affirmative action? So many people get so heated up about this, I thought it be good to actually define what we’re talking about. Dr. Tatum offers a great definition: “attempts to make progress toward actual, rather than hypothetical, equality of opportunity for those groups which are currently underrepresented in significant positions in society by explicitly taking into account the defining characteristics-sex or race, for example-that have been the basis for discrimination”. Now, there are a few ways companies implement affirmative action program, they can be categorized as either process oriented programs or goal oriented programs. What’s the difference? Well, process oriented programs focus on creating a fair, consistent, and equal application process. The assumption is that a fair process is going to yield a fair outcome. So in theory, if everybody got the same shot at the job, everybody was asked the same types of questions, then without a doubt the best candidate is going to be selected, regardless of sex or race. That sounds real good in theory, but is that what really happens? Is there room for bias? If so, how does it go unchecked? What happens quite often is that the decision maker may make his of her decision based on some other exterior reason, if a white candidate has extra credentials that may not even pertain to the job itself, those credential may be used as the deciding factor. On the other hand if a black candidate is carrying some extra credentials, than it may be taken as an over qualification, which may be used as a negating factor. Process oriented programs have been proven to be infective in practice. Now the goal oriented approach to affirmative action attempts to fulfill an organizational goal of diversity. These aren’t quotas being filled, but organizational goals that in fact can be exceeded. All things being equal, job requirements and all, the candidate selected should be the one who fulfills the organizational goal of diversity. In any event, if a minority is selected over a white person, this in no way, shape, or form means that a less qualified minority was given a job over a more qualified White person. In order to apply for a position, the candidate must be qualified, why in the world would I apply for a job as a surgeon if I’m not medical doctor? The problem is most white people always think they’re more qualified than any minority.
I’ve been quoting Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum to help me mull through this entire affirmative action deal; I’ve been trying to understand the way affirmative action policies are implemented so that I can better asses to the extent I myself have been discriminated against, although it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Anyways, I wouldn’t make a claim such as “white people always think they’re better qualified than any minority” without having something to back it up. Let me quote some of the work of social psychologists John Dovidio, Jeffrey Mann, and Samuel Gartner; in “Resistance to Affirmative Action: The Implications of Aversive Racism” they argue that White opposition to affirmative action programs is largely rooted in a subtle but pervasive form of racism they call “aversive racism”, which is defined as “an attitudinal adaptation resulting from an assimilation of an egalitarian value system with prejudice and with racist beliefs”. What this means is that most European-Americans have internalized the cultural values of fairness and justice for all while at the same time being exposed to constant messages of racial biases and stereotypes prevalent in American popular culture. Dovidio et al argue that aversive racists “do the right thing” when the norms of appropriate, nondiscriminatory behavior are clear and unambiguous. In situations when it is not clear what the “right thing” is, or if an action can be justified on the basis of some other factor other than race, negative feelings toward Blacks will surface; in these instances an aversive racist can discriminate against a Black person without threatening his or her “racially tolerant self-image”. So in the case of affirmative action, a White interviewer or human resources executive can indeed discriminate against a Black candidate basing his or her decision on some other factor other than race or specific qualifications. To explore how such a bias can affect how Blacks and Whites are perceived when it comes to competence, Dovidio et al. conducted a study in which White students were asked to rate college applicants who on the basis of transcript information were strongly qualified, moderately qualified, or weakly qualified. For every applicant labeled as a White, there was an identically qualified applicant also labeled as Black. There were no differences in how the students rated the weakly qualified applicants, rejecting the applications regardless of the race ascribed to the application. Whites were rated slightly better than Blacks in the moderately qualified samples, but not significantly different. The significantly different ratings come into play when the applicant had strong qualifications. Even though the strong qualifications applications (as were the others) were identical, only labeled Black or White, the Black applicants were evaluated significantly less positively than the White applicants. In others words, the more qualified the Black applicant is, the more likely he or she will be perceived or evaluated as less competent. In a similar study conducted by Dovidio et al, the bias was even more apparent when the Black person being rated was in a position superior to the White evaluator. While White high- ability supervisors were accepted by subordinate White raters as being somewhat more intelligent than themselves, White raters consistently described high-ability Black supervisors as significantly less intelligent than themselves. So even when we’re talking about a Black supervisor who is more competent than a White subordinate, the White person may see the situation as a Black person with fewer qualifications is receiving preferential treatment. So what did Dovidio et al conclude? :

The aversive racism framework has important and direct implications for the implementation of affirmative action policies. Affirmative action has often been interpreted as “when all things are equal, take the minority person.” Our research suggests that even when things are equal, they may not be perceived as equal particularly when the minority person is well- qualified and the situation has personal relevance to the non-minority person. Because Whites tend to misperceive the competence of Blacks relative to themselves, resistance to affirmative action may appear quite legitimate to the protesters. Insufficient competence, not race, becomes the rationale justifying resistance.

So even with laws that are designed to even out the playing field, you can see that a bias that people may or may not be aware of is still working to keep the scales tipped, favoring the ruling class. One thing is certain, if you don’t know you have a bias, you’ll never understand what I’m talking about, and you’ll never believe racism is still alive. How can you fight something you don’t know is there? How can you get rid of something you don’t even acknowledge? White privilege people, look it up. As I told my friend Will, in reality the ineffectiveness of affirmative action pales in comparison with the poor education we offer our children today, you want to talk about a real equalizer, let’s talk about fixing the education system.
The public education system in our country is nothing to be proud of, and in my opinion, it’s a main cause for inequality, leading to diminishing Black representation in higher learning institutions and the work force in general. Why do we not want to deal with this problem? What the hell is “no child left behind”? It’s a mockery, and politicians out there today have the faintest idea or interest. Providing all children with quality, honest, and competent education is the key to the future of this country. Why are we not putting money where it’s needed the most? We need books, teachers, and computers, all that good stuff, in poor neighborhoods, we need after school programs for under privileged communities, we need to give these kids wings to fly. Instead, funds are still being allocated by zip codes and real estate taxes. Of course the suburban schools are going to be prepared, properly staffed, and even beautified. But why can’t we divide the funds equally? It’s not that hard to do, this way the predominantly Black and Latino schools, located in the ghettos of America, can also enjoy smaller classrooms, state of the art libraries, relevant text books, competent teachers who actually care about their students. Last time I checked the percentage of Black kids who drop out of high school is still above 60 %, highest among all minorities. This is where the unfairness all begins, in the schools. What do you think most of this Black youth is going to do? They are certainly not going to become stock brokers and CEOs, their chances would be slim to none with out education. On the flip side, our government spends dozens of times more money building and running prison facilities than what they could be spending on education. So it’s not that they don’t have money to spend, rather how they choose to spend that money and why. Human warehouses, people that would otherwise be productive citizens had they been given a fair shot, a decent education. I’m not saying crime wouldn’t exist, but our decrepit education system certainly does generate more criminals than scholars. You do the math. But it’s all systemic if you ask me, everything has a functional end result. Our country is systematically set up to provide the best of opportunities to those already in power. Don’t get it twisted, what you see today happening in a country is not an accident, it is a design.
My conversation with Will on welfare was a rather short one. I don’t think he knew that the average welfare recipient is a single-white female, not generational Black baby mamas who get pregnant just to get more money out of the system. That’s just yet another unsubstantiated claim created by some to make us all look bad. I’m just going to wrap this one up right here. I’ll be addressing the racial socialization of children in this country on my next post, good stuff. Holla…….