Bob White of the Kentucky Standard (Bardstown, Kentucky) has an impressive column on some of the costs of “affirmative action.”
He mentions, of course, some of the financial costs — contractors being forced to sub-contract to “Disadvantaged Business Enterprises” who, despite being officially “disadvantaged,” often are much more expensive than others or simply refuse the offered work; paperwork-induced delays; less efficient work; etc. — but the more corrosive costs are the widespread resentment the unfairness of racial preferences produces. He asks, tellingly,
Wouldn’t it be discriminatory to presume a person is less capable of anything because of their sex, race or physical disposition?
So why do we allow the federal government to make such presumptions under a guise of affirmative action?
….
In all of my 32 years, I’ve been taught that anyone, regardless of skin color, sex or disability, is as capable as anyone else. For me, it’s not just a lesson either. It’s what I practice.
But I’ve also noticed a lot of bonus points being given to people unlike my white male self.
The Department of Transportation notes how the program is designed to reduce and compensate for discrimination, past and present, and to put us all on a “level playing field.”
But for someone like me, who had nothing to do with slavery, nothing to do with female rights oppression and nothing to do with the discrimination of sub-continent Asian Americans or South Pacific Americans, this seems anything but fair.
