An Appealing, Though Unpersuasive, Pro-Preference Column

Beverly Vereen, owner of B.Vereen Media Group, a public relations and marketing firm in Jacksonville, Fla., has an engaging and appealing column on affirmative action — with reservations, she’s for it — in the Florida Times-Union.

One of the things that makes her column appealing is that Ms. Vereen, a black woman, does not hesitate to recognize that preferences do stigmatize those who receive them, or, even worse, those who are suspected of receiving them.

Frankly, I’m not sure how I feel about the plethora of positions I’ve held over the years. On one hand, I feel extremely accomplished and proud of the titles I’ve held in management without a degree. But another part of me can’t help but ponder the accusation that I was merely a recipient of affirmative action, and this perturbs me in more ways than one.

Some opponents of affirmative action say it gives an unfair advantage to blacks, and I agree to a certain extent.

But affirmative action can also be a stigma, something that casts a shadow on everything one has achieved, as is the case with me.

But, because life is unfair in many ways, on balance she still supports affirmative action.

You see, although affirmative action is something that is often misconstrued as something only blacks benefit from, and that isn’t the case.

While working in management, I witnessed white employees being promoted, even though they weren’t qualified. And it’s funny how no one ever pulled the “affirmative action” card on these less-than-qualified white employees, who were often males.

I’ve also observed attractive workers being favored over their less-attractive coworkers – this, in my opinion, is also affirmative action, it just isn’t addressed as often as the race/color-based program we know as affirmative action.

As you can see, there’s more than one kind of affirmative action, and I believe it would be prudent to consider all sides when making an argument about it.

As much as I loathe the fact that some see my success in corporate America as a mere statistic of affirmative action, I simply cannot say that affirmative action is something only blacks benefit from, because it simply isn’t true.

There’s the “good ole boy” affirmative action, and there’s the “he/she is very attractive” affirmative action, which goes to show that whether we want to admit it or not, race, color and looks all play a part in the decision process.

In lieu of all the forms of affirmative action taking place, I think the most appropriate response to the issue is this: How do we condition society to look past the exterior and truly make decisions based on the interior?

Once we’ve achieved the aforementioned, then, and only then, will the argument for the use of affirmative action be a thing of the past.

This, as I’ve stated, is an honest and engaging statement, and based on it I’m sure Ms. Vereen earned and deserved all the success she’s had. But her argument boils down to the assertion that preferences based on race, i.e., racial discrimination, will be justified as long as any other non-merit-based preferences are still being practiced. In other words, until hell freezes over.

The main problem here, however, is not the absence of a sunset provision for racial preference. It is the false and actually dangerous assumption, discussed here many times, that discrimination based on race is morally, legally, and politically indistinguishable from literally any other kind of discrimination — in short, that discriminating against someone because of his or her race is no worse than discriminating in favor of someone because of her looks or his personality or whatever.

Let’s also look closely at one of the examples Ms. Vereen gives:

I witnessed white employees being promoted, even though they weren’t qualified. And it’s funny how no one ever pulled the “affirmative action” card on these less-than-qualified white employees, who were often males.

I’m sure white employees, and yes, even white male employees, are promoted every day of the week even though “they weren’t qualified.” But this fact, sad and unfair though it may be, is relevant to the debate over affirmative action only if they were promoted because they were white and/or male.

Civil rights laws, properly interpreted, don’t bar all unfairness or even all discrimination. They bar only discrimination based on race or ethnicity or gender.