Or so says the Rev. Tommy Davis, who identifies himself as “a black American” and “deputy chief chaplain and New York state director, Chaplain Fellowship Ministries International, which provides chaplains to hospitals, jails, the military, and police and fire departments,” in a powerful OpEd in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
Read it. All those who have (so far) posted comments under the article liked it, as I did.
The ? is if Affirmative Action is sexism against White European-American Males & racism against White European-Americans? Is it justified by truth & current & historical sexism against Women & racism against People of Color?
I propose a test: why don’t you see if you can post a comment without using any of the following rhetorical boilerplate:
“sexism”
“racism”
“White European-American”
“Women & People Of Color”
Rev. Tommy Davis writes:
>>>”Some say affirmative action is needed to compensate for past discrimination against blacks in the United States. However, as a black American, I believe that continued affirmative action has caused black people to depend on government intervention to succeed.”
Rev. Davis neglects to mention that as a MINORITY, (12% of the population), African-Americans have ALWAYS depended on “government intervention” in their struggle against the WMPS. “Government intervention” ended the chattel slavery system. “Government intervention” resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which were both opposed by conservative factions of the WMPS. It is ONLY “government intervention” that prevents the rights of the minority from being trampled upon by the majority, even to this day, IMHO.
Rev. Tommy Davis writes:
>>>”Now, our contemporary use of affirmative action is government-sanctioned racism, which almost always denies others opportunities for which they are unquestionably qualified. “
Well, this is a self-immolating statement. In it, the author assumes that those who receive Affirmative-Action (code word: BLACKS) are “almost always” INFERIOR candidates to others (code word: White Men), whose qualifications are “unquestionable”, presumably, by the virtue of being white.
Cue the rim shot and laugh track on that one.
Rev. Tommy Davis writes:
>>>”The very agenda implemented to halt discrimination on the basis of race is now generally used to bar Asians, white people and anyone of European origin from advancement. “
The author assumes that in a society that has been DOMINATED for CENTURIES by the WMPS…where the vast MAJORITY of wealth and power is held securely in white hands, that an entry level racial outreach program that at BEST affects single digit percentages of any given applicant pool magically “bars Asians, white people and anyone of European origin from advancement.”
Cue the rim shot and laugh track again. This guy should be working comedy night at the Trop in Vegas.
Rev. Tommy Davis writes:
>>>”Another consequence of affirmative action is the stigma of inferiority — the message that minorities are incapable of engaging the competition. This is the very predicament that Booker T. Washington said he wanted African Americans to avoid when he addressed the crowd at the International Atlanta Exposition in 1895. He said then that black Americans must live by the production of their hands and elevate common labor through brains and skills. “
The author is referring to the “Atlanta Compromise”:
“…On September 18, 1895, African-American spokesman and leader Booker T. Washington spoke before a predominantly white audience at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta. His “Atlanta Compromise” address, as it came to be called, was one of the most important and influential speeches in American history. Although the organizers of the exposition worried that “public sentiment was not prepared for such an advanced step,” they decided that inviting a black speaker would impress Northern visitors with the evidence of racial progress in the South. Washington soothed his listeners’ concerns about “uppity” blacks by claiming that his race would content itself with living “by the productions of our hands….”
“…The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera-house.”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/
Frontline describes Booker T. Washington this way:
>>>”Booker T. Washington, educator, reformer and the most influentional black leader of his time (1856-1915) preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accomodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. He believed in education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills and the cultivation of the virtues of patience, enterprise and thrift. This, he said, would win the respect of whites and lead to African Americans being fully accepted as citizens and integrated into all strata of society.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html
Does quoting Washington and endorsing his Atlanta Compromise mean that the author espouses a strategy of appeasement? The “go-along to get along” routine?
Hmm…as for me, I tend to like Washington’s RIVAL at the time, W.E.B. Dubois’ philosophy:
>>>”W.E.B. Du Bois, a towering black intellectual, scholar and political thinker (1868-1963) said no–Washington’s strategy would serve only to perpetuate white oppression. Du Bois advocated political action and a civil rights agenda (he helped found the NAACP). In addition, he argued that social change could be accomplished by developing the small group of college-educated blacks he called “the Talented Tenth:”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html
Rev. Tommy Davis has every right to support a supplicating, non-confrontational strategy of WMPS accommodation, just as I, and most CONSCIOUS African-Americans have every right to criticize him for it.
–Cobra
Freeman: This is AA — A college admissions officer reads an application and considers it impeccable. The applicant has even overcome incredible odds just getting to this country. But … oops, the name is Asian. Sorry, you don’t get in. So yes, AA is racism.
Furthermore, please stop using the phrase “people of color”. There is in this country no notable prejudice against Asians, East Indians, Arabs, Cubans, or southern Europeans (if you consider Italians and Greeks to be “people of color.”) All are very successful here, and most are excluded specifically from AA.
Cobra: Sorry, but you’re not up to par here. You are giving yourself kudos for “rim shots” that just don’t make it. “Minorities” do not depend on Government interventions. Only Blacks did for historical reasons, and that intervention was only meant to undo previous interventions. Slavery, Jim Crow … all of it was government sponsored. And why would anyone praise Dubois’ notion of a “talented tenth”? The other 90% shouldn’t feel happy about that.
Both Cobra and Freeman have, once again, promoted the tired gospel that success is in itself an indictment against white men.
A better strategy, Cobra and FreeMan, might be for you to study exactly what made white men so successful. Instead of plotting to cripple white men so that black men can compete, you might consider emulating white men.
So, try advocating responsible behavior by fathers, respect for education, sobriety, attendance at church and respect for the law. If more black men tried these behaviors, I suspect that their success rates would increase dramatically.
You might find that emulating these virtues of white men works every bit as good as attempting to tie one hand behind the back of every white man through governmental punishments, and judicially sanctioned racial revenge.
Abandoning the scapegoating and the obsession with racial revenge might also pay big dividends. By doing this, Cobra and FreeMan, you will discover that you free up amazing energy and resources within yourself.
God helps those who help themselves.
John, I hope that you find this post appropriately respectful.
Dom – Italians are Europeans – I reside in an area of Black Afrikan (Mideastern)Arabs – they suffer discrimination based on ethnicity or race in Michigan – especially after 911 – “White” Cubans are considered White by the US – I know of East Indians that are targets of discrimination based on ethnicity or race – Asians suffer discrimination based on ethnicity or race too – US Republican Senator Orin Hatch illegally denied US Attorney Lee his position because of discrimination based on ethnicity or race –
Hmm – Do Black Afrikans suffer any notable prejudice in the US?
What about discrimination based on gender affecting the colonial population of adult humans that are biologically opposite males? – You didn’t answer the ? Once again – if Affirmative Action is discrimination based upon ethnicity or race or gender is it justified because of the truth of current & historical discrimination based upon gender against the adult humans that are biologically opposite males or current & historical discrimination based upon ethnicity or race against the colonial class of the world NOT biologically identified with Non-Black Europeans –
I will refer to People of Color – especially if Anti-Affirmative Action supporters can claim that Anti-Affirmative Action is consistent with civil rights of the colonial population of the adult humans that are biologically opposite males and the colonial population of the world NOT biologically identified with Non-Black Europeans
(ps I used the change in terms for Mr. Rosenberg’s benefit & only used “People of Color” to answer Dom’s ?)
Dom writes:
>>>””Minorities” do not depend on Government interventions. Only Blacks did for historical reasons, and that intervention was only meant to undo previous interventions. Slavery, Jim Crow … all of it was government sponsored.”
I respectfully disagree.
You’re forgetting “government intervention” with Native Americans. I won’t get into the ATTROCITIES against them, but a simple observance of this court ruling:
>>>”Since Worcester v. Georgia, 1116 it has been recognized that Indian tribes are unique aggregations possessing attributes of sovereignty over both their members and their territory. 1117 They are, of course, no longer possessed of the full attributes of sovereignty, 1118 having relinquished some part of it by their incorporation within the territory of the United States and their acceptance of its protection. By specific treaty provision, they yielded up other sovereign powers, and Congress has removed still others. ”The sovereignty that the Indian tribes retain is of a unique and limited character. It exists only at the sufferance of Congress and is subject to complete defeasance.” 1119″
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article01/35.html
You forget “Government intervention” for white women…
>>>”Nineteenth Amendment
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919.
Ratified August 18, 1920.
Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm
You forget “government intervention” for Asian-Americans…
>>>”1946
LUCE-CELLER BILL
Luce – Celler bill grants right of naturalization and small immigration quotas to Asian Indians and Filipinos. This bill amended the Immigration Act of 1917 (“Barred Zone”), allows 100 immigrants from India and the Philippines to enter the country and makes persons of Indian and Filipino descent living the United States eligible for citizenship.
1946
JAPANESE AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS ARE CLOSED
All the concentration/internment camps are closed. The Philippines have become independent from the United States. United States citizenship are offered to all Filipinos, not to just servicemen.
1946
FILIPINOS AND INDIANS CAN BECOME CITIZENS
Filipino Naturalization Act extends US citizenship to residents arrived before March 24, 1943. Luce-Cellar Bill signed, allows Asian Indians to become US citizens and sets a yearly quota of 100 immigrants.
http://us_asians.tripod.com/timeline-1940.html#interracial-marriage-ban-lifted
And that’s not even scratching the surface, Dom.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m the first guy to chime in if you want to criticize the American Government for its historical interventions on the matter of race, but I’m also realistic enough to know that government, through laws, enforcement and the justice system is the only peaceful game in town to redress greivances.
Dom writes:
>>>”And why would anyone praise Dubois’ notion of a “talented tenth”? The other 90% shouldn’t feel happy about that.”
What was the alternative for the other 90%, besides degradation and servitude under the boot of the WMPS? Dubois didn’t endorse Washington’s appeasement ideology, but argued that HIGHER EDUCATION was a key component to African-American success:
>>>”The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts, but its object is for the vision of seers.
If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess artisans but not, in nature, men. Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools—intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it—this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man mistake the means of living for the object of life. . . .”
http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1148.htm
Hear, Hear, Mr. DuBois.
–Cobra
Once again, Cobra, you’ve turned everything on its head.
Name a Black Male Power Structure that has built a constitutional and legal system of redress similar to that of the Anglo-American system developed by white men.
The abuses you’ve described are, in fact, abuses that occur in every human society. You are committing an error by attributing these human dilemmas to white men alone. Slavery, violence, conquest… those are the common experiences of human society. What is remarkable about the U.S. is that those abuses have largely been cured. White men in the U.S. have been and still are the leaders in advancing freedom and prosperity for the broadest segment of our population.
The abuses that once were visited upon blacks are history. It’s over. You need to give up fighting a battle that is over. Welfare entitlements, race quotas, lawsuits… none of this will solve the proglems of black men. It is just a bad habit to continue to believe that these remedies will work. The battle now is for blacks, and particularly black men, to ceases obsessing about racial vengeance and to turn their efforts toward, especially, responsible fatherhood.
Your focus on what happened 50 years ago or 100 years ago is a complete waste of time and energy. Your continued obsession with the old heroes of Marxism is just another symptom of your eternal lost in the past syndrome.
The romanticism of Marxism is a lost cause. Nobody cares for that any more, because we know (despite all the flowery vocabulary) the actual results of that dogma.
It isn’t a world of ideal choices. The American model, the constitutional and legal model created by that white male power structure, has won over the world, and for good reason. The Marxism of W.E.B. DuBois is an embarassing anachronism and failure.
Stephen writes:
>>>”Name a Black Male Power Structure that has built a constitutional and legal system of redress similar to that of the Anglo-American system developed by white men.”
I’ll give you a choice, Stephen. I could document for you the Judicial System under the BLACK MALE controlled Songhai Empire in Western Africa, which, over 400 YEARS AGO had ministers in THEIR minority communities to bring about social redress-
-OR–
I could document, in excruciating detail, just how abominably HIDEOUS the Anglo-American system towards minorities for the vast majority of its existance, so much so, that there are millions of African-Americans alive today who lived through Jim Crow.
Take your pick, Stephen.
–Cobra
That’s just sad. The Songhai Empire was a theocratic monarchy. I’m not surprised that Cobra finds that system to be his idea of a proper political system.
Mikem writes:
>>>”That’s just sad. The Songhai Empire was a theocratic monarchy. I’m not surprised that Cobra finds that system to be his idea of a proper political system.”
And America is a democratic republic…which featured SLAVERY and JIM CROW, and refused to extend full civil rights to African-Americans on paper until 190 years into its official existance.
Tell me what’s “sad” again, Mikem?
–Cobra
Laugh out loud.
It’s YOUR example.
Live with it.
I thank you all for your comments on my article.
Affirmative action will cause more damage to the US economy and will destroy people and their families. Why? Companies will fear hiring people and most likely reduce their work force. Many will relocate abroad, and not because they don’t believe in diversity, because they don’t want outside intervention in their companies business. In the US, critical time will be consumed fighting over who should have what position, who should get what job, who should get what contract, what race, what sex, while all demises before our very eyes. Not realizing were all Americans, with shared beliefs, we will simply destroy ourselves. It’s our beliefs that make us Americans, not our race or sex. I have worked abroad for many years, and worried about the US economy, having returned to the US was costly. Image working on large World Bank projects around the globe, and then believing you should return to the US to help the market create jobs with your expertise in large project implementation. Now you can’t find employment because your race or sex doesn’t meet the requirement. No one will have to conquer the US; we will conquer our country by ourselves.