I’ve discussed inanities, offenses, and inconsistencies in columns by the affirmative action columnist, Leonard Pitts, too many times to cite (examples are here, here, here, here, here, and here). His latest column claims we’ve come “only half way” on racial equality. He praises the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for getting us where we are today, including among its accomplishments that without that Act, “not to put too fine a point on it, yours truly is no Miami Herald columnist,” but he doesn’t say what is necessary to get us from half a loaf to the whole enchilada (to mix metaphors, or at least bread doughs).
A revealing excerpt:
If America is anything, it is an implicit promise of fairness, a promise that you will not be arrested, suspected, rejected, demeaned, denied, suspended, scapegoated, held back, pushed down or killed on account of the color of your skin.
If affirmative action is anything, it is explicitly admitting, hiring, and promoting individuals who would not have received that benefit but for the color of their skin. An inevitable corrollary is that other individuals were not admitted, hired, and promoted on account of the color of their skin. If that were not the case, eliminating affirmative action would not reduce the number of minorities admitted, hired, or promoted.
Despite what Pitts regards as America’s “implicit promise,” his version of “fairness” definitely comes with color-coded qualifiers.
