Campus Ministries: Catholic Ministries

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Many well meaning people today believe that, when it comes to racism, they are color blind, they harbor no prejudice. They believe that social policies should also be color blind. Governments, businesses, universities, etc. should do nothing to provide special assistance to one racial group at the expense of another. Such affirmative active, they contend, is unjust, is reverse discrimination.

And yet, not very long ago, the American Catholic bishops, in their pastoral letter on Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy, came out with this clear declaration:  

Discrimination in job opportunities or income levels on the basis of race, sex, or other arbitrary stands can never be justified. It is a scandal that such discrimination continues in the United States today. Where the effects of past discrimination persist, society has the obligation to take positive steps to overcome the legacy of injustice. Judiciously administered affirmative action programs in education and employment can be important expressions of the drive for solidarity and participation that is at the heart of true justice. Social harm calls for social relief.

Economic Justice For All, 73.

Those who believe themselves to be color blind might say that "the effects of past discrimination" no longer "persist." Following upon the civil rights movement in the 1960's, the last thirty years of affirmative action have been sufficient to offset any past injustices. What is needed now, they say, are color blind policies that give every group, every individual, the same opportunity to succeed.

RACISM IN AMERICA

But such a benign analysis of the current racial situation in the U.S. is, at best, naive, and, at worst, self-serving. Four centuries of brutal slavery, followed by another century of dehumanizing Jim Crow policies, have left deep festering injustices that cannot be wished away in a single generation. If, because of a very uneven playing field, one team has been left trailing far behind, would it be fair to now simply continue the game, with the same score, on an even playing field? "Social harm calls for social relief."

Moreover, people of color are not only burdened with the bitter heritage of past oppression. The current debate about the fairness of affirmative action is being conducted on a playing field that continues, today, to deny them an equal opportunity to succeed. Here is but one example from the state where I reside. For years the courts have consistently declared that children in poor inner city schools are being unjustly denied their basic constitutional right to an education comparable to that being provided to their peers in wealthier school districts. Current generations of largely minority children continue, today, to be denied an equal opportunity to succeed, continue to be educationally handicapped.

To attack affirmative action programs as discriminatory, without also attacking the racial injustice that still festers in our society, in nothing but undercover racism. Affirmative action will continue to be needed, until our society redresses past and present negative action.

PREJUDICED ME

I used to think I was color blind. It was years ago, but it is still very embarrassing, and instructive, for me to recall the simple remark that revealed to me my own prejudice. While I was a seminarian in Washington, D.C., I met some children who lived nearby. Afterwards I was telling someone about these children. He asked me if they were Black. I responded "No, they are nice kids."

I was immediately thunderstruck by the words that had come out of my mouth. In my mind, Black kids were not nice kids. I had never thought of myself as being prejudiced. But from then on I realized that I too, unwittingly, had absorbed the racist attitudes of our society. Thanks be to God that I was able to discover my prejudice, and, hopefully, compensate for it.

Our society is far from color blind. People of color have made some significant advances, but they know where they are not welcome. Segregated neighborhoods, schools, etc. continue to be the unwritten law today. God grant us the courage to recognize the racist attitudes that still infest our hearts, our relationships, our society. May God grant us the love to move over and make room for those whom prejudice continues to push aside.

Ronald Stanley, O.P.

For additional articles related to this topic see:

HATE YOUR NEIGHBOR

GREED

 

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