A controversial legislative committee reviewing affirmative action in Wisconsin voted down proposals that
would have drafted a constitutional amendment to prohibit state agencies and public universities from granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, and would have required racial or ethnic minorities applying to the UW System or state contracting agencies to prove they are at least 25% that race or ethnicity to receive preferential consideration.
It passed measures
• To prohibit minority businesses with net worth of $1 million or more from receiving preferential treatment.
• To require minorities to be U.S. citizens to receive preferential treatment.
Apparently the idea of a constitutional amendment to require equal treatment was simply too extreme for Wisconsin Democrats to stomach. Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee), a committee member who supports affirmative actions, called the equal treatment proposal and others “ridiculous and extremely offensive.” She opposes equal treatment because “the playing field still needs to be leveled for racial and ethnic groups that have suffered discrimination.”
Actually, she and others of like mind don’t favor a “level playing field” at all, or at least not one where all contestants play by the same rules. If the general rule is ten yards for a first down, the preferentialists want their favored teams to be given a first down after only seven or so yards. If the general penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct is 15 yards, the preferentialists want their designated villains to be penalized 50 points, or perhaps forfeit the game at the outset. They’d like football, etc., to be more like golf, with its uneven field and players handicapped by history to be given handicaps making it easier for them to compete. And when their team strikes out on some test, they’d like it to be given unlimited mulligans until they get it right.
Could someone please remind this politician that the proper metaphor is not team sports but individual sports. Should a Jamaican speedskater be given a two second headstart in their race simply because his country hasn’t won any Winter Olympics medals?
Women & People of Color are discriminated against as groups & not individuals because of sexism against Women & racism against People of Color
I had always thought of Wisconsin as a rather progressive Democratic state throughout its history. Is there any hard evidence that these racial and ethnic groups have suffered discrimination in the past that needs to be remedied this way? If any state seems as if it would have leveled the playing field long ago, it’s Wisconsin.
FreeMan — If the Olympic 100 meter dash were conducted with whites having a one meter headstart and blacks still winning a disproportionate number of the races, who would be considered discriminated against? Whites or blacks?