Conservative Views of African-Americans on Affirmative Action

Recently the merits of a race based admission policy to colleges and universities have come under scrutiny by the American public. Take into account the position of black conservatives, who feel that affirmative action merely perpetuates a system of preference in reverse and does nothing to fix the problems African Americans face in lower educational programs. When looking at the arguments of the Black conservatives and comparing them to the view points of the opposition, a certain conclusion may be reached.

The first concept of affirmative action was presented by President Kennedy in a 1961 executive order. His order stated that government contractors should voluntarily support affirmative action efforts by recruiting, hiring and promoting minorities (Moreno 5). Higher education did not become the focus of affirmative action until the 1973 case Adams vs. Richardson. In this case the Department of Heath, Education and Welfare Published guidelines ordering a unitary higher education system. The goal of these guidelines was to ensure that the proportion of black high school graduates equaled the proportion of white graduates entering state institutions of higher learning (Moreno 6).

This in itself is the problem that black conservatives see in implementing raced based uniform admissions policies. They feel that this system is not only demeaning to African Americans, but that school desegregation laws are based on a theory of black inferiority (Magelli 2). Shelby Steel, a Stanford University Professor and black conservative thinks that the federal government should focus on fixing old public school systems instead of giving minorities a leg up later in life when it is often too late to undo the damage inflicted by poor public schooling during childhood (Magelli 11). This is a valid point especially in many urban areas where underpaid teachers teach from outdated school books. But what is the answer? Would everything be fine if,,Ÿlike the black conservatives feel,,Ÿ the federal government removed itself from the situation (Magelli 3)? We need only to look at our own neighborhoods to answer that question.

A 2000 census report confirms that we continue to live in a segregated society. This study used an index that ranged from 0 to 100, where 0 indicated blacks and whites are evenly distributed in neighborhoods and 100 means that blacks and whites share no neighborhood in common.