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Alterman on affirmative action
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By Mike Cuenca | June 24, 2003
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Even after all of the recent discussion and debate over what really
constitutes affirmative action, I was deeply disappointed by Eric
Alterman's misrepresentation of affirmative action as being the
awarding of jobs to unqualified, or less-qualified, minorites and women
over poor, more deserving white males. When that happens, it's not
affirmative action, it's a dumb business move. Quite the contrary, for
several hundred years, white male affirmative action has resulted in
many white males being granted employment over more qualified
minorities and women.
Affirmative action, practiced correctly, does not result in the hiring
of not-qualified minorities and women. Affirmative action opens doors
for minorities and women who might otherwise not have an opportunity to
even apply for a job. Affirmative action takes into account the factors
that prevent a minority or woman from being accepted as qualified in
the first place, such as a racist white male simply assuming that they
are less qualified than he is and defending a subjective determination
that they are. In any job--take for example: journalism--the
subjectivity of "qualified" makes it impossible to judge just who is
really more qualified. Compare, say, Howard Kurtz and Eric Alterman.
Too often, "qualified" really means "preferred."
And what kind of resentment does he think results from being rejected
time and again throughout the course of a lifetime, simply because of
one's skin color or gender?
I'm disappointed that no editors at the Nation corrected Alterman's
misconceptions before they printed his column. I wonder if that failure
occurred because he's a white male?
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