It's Time for the End

When the Civil Rights movement dismantled legal segregation in the 1960s, it seems unlikely that their goal was the new discrimination that is now enshrined in the law thirty Years later. We believe that affirmative action as a legal institution is fundamentally unfair and does little to address the true racial inequities in our society.

The staff envisions a market "conspiracy" that prevents minorities from receiving their fair market share in American society. We question the existence of this "conspiracy" and the extent to which race supercedes class as an economic barrier.

If discrimination is the problem, we fail to see how reverse discrimination brings us any closer to the ideal of a color-blind society. Instead, affirmative action exacerbates racial tensions and perpetuates the myth that certain segments of the population require government help to succeed.

Affirmative action is unfair because it privileges and punishes individuals not for their actions or their abilities, but for their race. Affirmative action violates the "equality of opportunity" that lies behind the American Dream. Meanwhile it does little to address the problems of our inner cities, where the true racial inequities lie.

Our nation's inner cities, which are disproportionately minority, are faced with poverty, few educational resources and crime. Over the past twenty Years, while the inner cities have descended into increasing levels of violence, drug abuse, and desperation, the Federal government has played a numbers game that helps Black elites far more than it does redress the needs of truly disadvantaged.

President Clinton has sensibly yielded to the American people and agreed to review the Federal government's catalogue of affirmative action programs. We hope Congress and the President will finally put the injustice of legalized racism to rest.