Last month Michigan passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting affirmative action in any form in public institutions.
As a Christian, I wonder what people where thinking in the voting booth.
I don’t think that many would argue that education is the path to economic advancement. The latest census data from 2002 says those with advanced degrees earned, $72,824; bachelor’s degrees earned, $51,194; high school graduates earned, $27,280; and nongraduates, $18,826.
The same census documented that median African American family income was 63% LESS than median white family income. But the median income of African Americans with a college degree was 95% of the median income of a similarly educated white person.
Education is the best way to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, but only 17% of African Americans are college graduates. Though that represents significant gains from where it has been, it is still by far the lowest of any racial category.
So how can we encourage more African Americans to go college?
In order to get into college, you have to get good grades in high school. The worst high schools in the country are those with the highest enrollments of African Americans. Nationally we graduated 76% of the white public school students. We only graduated 55% of African American public school students.
If we can’t fix the problem of bad schools, doesn’t it seem to serve both the greater good and a higher Christian ideal to offer those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds preferential treatment in at least college admissions? If more get into college, hopefully more will graduate.
That’s not to say that more privileged kids shouldn’t get to go to college too. They are the ones that the whole system is setup to benefit today anyway. There is plenty of space out there for everyone. This is all about making the pie bigger, not taking anything away from anyone.
The benefits to society are obvious. Those that graduate from college not only can support themselves, pay taxes, and enter the work force on more or less on an equal footing with their more privileged counterparts – they also break down the barriers of institutional racism that limit opportunity in the workplace by becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Instead Michigan voters reacted like Cain and questioned why they bear the responsibility of looking after their brother. I fear that our state, like Cain, will reap what we sow in continued poverty, dependence, and wasted potential.
I am a college educated female who was born and raised in Michigan. I have a pretty diverse group of friends, and throughout the years, we have had a couple debates over affirmative action.
Here is the deal: My best friend (who happens to be African American) in high school had a G.P.A. of 3.1. Mine was much higher, yet, guess who got accepted to U of M? It was my African American friend. Now, I was very happy for her; however, at the time, I could not help but wonder how she pulled it off…. After all, I had the 3.8.
Yes. It was affirmative action. Hmmm.. Now, I am pleased that she was able to have such an opportunity; however, she ended up failing out of college. Some of my other classmates were granted similar opportunities, yet most of them ended up failing out or dropping out of college.
Now, my experiences with affirmative action could be different than most people.. I honestly do not know.
Now, I will go on to say that years ago, all sorts of people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds came to America–all pursuing their own dream. With that being said, how come certain races/cultures have lagged behind so much? We certainly didn’t have affirmative action when my family came over from Ireland with no money and no education. Yet, somehow, through hard work and determination, they made a life for themselves and their children.
I didn’t come from an unusually wealthy family, yet I managed to pay for my education by myself, and so did the rest of my family, with the occasional academic scholarship thrown into the mix. My father never knew his father or his ethnicity and my mother is an Irish American. My cousins are Hispanic American, and my sister is married to a Greek and Italian American, who came from nothing, and lived in a “bad part of town”. Yet, somehow, he managed to become a doctor. Now, the loans are insane; however, he did not want to live in poverty. If I woke up every morning in the ghetto, you can bet I would do everything in my power to get the heck out of there. It is not fun!!!!
I totally understand what you are saying about trying to help these kids in these situations, but is affirmative action really the solution?
Perhaps, if there were more programs to aid children in confidence and family values, we might see a rise in the number of college graduates. Affirmative action did help some people get their foot in the door; however, once many of these kids were in, they didn’t have the support system to finish. Or maybe they did, but college wasn’t their gig.
Cyndi,
Thanks for your thoughts and congratulations on your success in HS.
It is certainly frustrating to see people fail to take advantage of the opportunities that they are given. But I’m not sure that is justification for withdrawing those opportunities. After all, what did Jesus say when Peter asked about the frequency of forgiveness? Peter thought he was being generous in suggesting seven times. Jesus said seventy times seven. In other words, we are responsible to love and heal everyone – even those who don’t appreciate it.
So how do we go about healing the great injustices of slavery and discrimination that have been visited on a people just because of the color of their skin? That’s not to say that other ethnic and religious groups didn’t also experience discrimination, but none to the institutionalized degree that our country imposed on African Americans. It is only within my lifetime, for example, that African Americans could legally vote in the south much less start a business, own property, or hold public office.
You already understand the value of hard work and sound as though you have the family to support you and provide a good example. They invested their money to provide you a home in an area where you had a good HS that prepared you for college.
What do we do for those kids who don’t have any of that?
The statistics prove that education is the FASTEST way to break down the barriers to success of any racial or ethnic group. But without at least some recognition of the fact that kids who come from poor schools aren’t going to have the same grades as kids who come from good schools, disadvantaged kids who DO want to work hard may not ever get the opportunities that you and your friend had.
I’m sorry that you didn’t get to go to UoM. Hopefully you didn’t let that hold you back and have found your path to your future at another institution. The difference between you and a kid from a bad section in Detroit, for example, is that UoM might have been their ONLY chance.
Do you really want to take that away from them?
Jeff
When good will and charity are compulsory, rather than voluntary, they cease to be good will and charity.
ML.
I agree.
The ammendment we’re talking about though, made even voluntary application of affirmative action (as occurs with colleges like UoM) illegal. So I’m not sure how this applies.
Affirmative action, at least in the context of this post, is recognition that we as a society have created institutional barriers in the form of segregated neighborhoods and substandard schools that make it difficult for kids from those neighborhoods to get into college. So until we are able to fix those inequities at the neighborhood school level, what affirmative action did was to give colleges an opportunity to adjust their admission criteria to reflect the fact that kids from those neighborhoods also have something to offer to the community even though their grades and test scores weren’t as good as those kids going to good schools. There are already admissions criteria reflecting leadership, athletic ability, community service, and academic achievement. Why not one also reflecting economic background? When you consider the positive impact on society of bringing the college graduation rate from our poorest neighborhoods closer to the number from our richest neighborhood, it’s hardly charity. It’s functionally the end of poverty and within a generation or so, the end of color-based descrimination in the workplace.
Jeff
This is great!
This is a very very nice blog!… But what made you decide on the theme?
Don’t know whether or not you are from Monroe, MI. where this blog is posted, but there is a little bit about the history in the “about” page.
It is also intended to counter the perception that being a Christian is some how at odds with being a progressive. Jesus was, after all, the prototypical political radical and was executed because of it.
Since He did say that we should all go and do likewise, in my own very small way, I’m following that direction.
Jeff
Like your blog. Good content..we’ll link one of ours to yours Denver Home Improvement .
Thanks,
I’ll go take a look.
Jeff
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Thanks.
I appreciate it.
Jeff
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