Does Obama Threaten Affirmative Action?

[mel1ssa]

Below is a link to an article from MSNBC which looks at whether Obama's (possible) success this fall will indicate that affirmative action is no longer needed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25458941/

I noted the following excerpts from the article which speak directly of Obama and his comments about this issue:

Obama, who asks voters neither to support nor oppose him on the basis of his race, has dealt gently with affirmative action. He says his two young daughters have enjoyed great advantages and therefore should not receive special consideration because of their race.

"On the other hand," he said in an April debate, "if there's a young white person who has been working hard, struggling, and has overcome great odds, that's something that should be taken into account" by people such as college admission officers.

"So I still believe in affirmative action as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination," Obama said. "But I think that it can't be a quota system and it can't be something that is simply applied without looking at the whole person, whether that person is black, or white, or Hispanic, male or female."

and...

Defenders of affirmative action cite continuing disparities between blacks and whites in areas such as income, education achievement, health care and incarceration rates. These disparities, however, "have roots in problems that are not addressed by affirmative action," said Abigail Thernstrom, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

They are complex, deep-seated factors that put many minority children behind their peers as early as kindergarten, she said. In confronting such challenges, she said, "racial preferences don't solve anything."

To some extent, Obama agrees that affirmative action is poorly suited to address such problems. But it still is needed, he says.

"Affirmative action is an important tool, although a limited tool," Obama told National Public Radio last year.

"I say limited simply because a large portion of our young people right now never even benefit from affirmative action because they're not graduating from high school," he said. "And unless we do a better job with early childhood education, fixing crumbling schools, investing to make sure that we've got an excellent teacher in front of every classroom, and then making college affordable, we're not even going to reach the point where our children can benefit from affirmative action."


This is political speak, trying to appease all parties impacted by this effort. Does anyone know how he really feels about this issue?

[MadsenOMC]

Is this a vital issue for you?

[mel1ssa]

Is this a vital issue for you?

yes and no.

yes - because it deals with something that i work with daily. (human resources, public sector)

i won't say that it would make/break the candidate i select. and you?

i think this is an issue, though, and an interesting one. hilary may not have been successful at winning the nomination, but she and obama beat out every other democrat. if obama wins the popular vote, does this imply that affirmative action is no longer needed? at what point do we determine that, and how do we measure it?

further, how do government institutions follow obama's comments above -- consider race, class, and efforts -- in making a decision about who is most qualified for a position?

as the POTUS, his direction leads not just the nation, but he also will direct the employment practices for the government, correct? isn't our government among the largest of our employers? how many people may be impacted by his direction?

if you're asking if i place this as a vital issue next to the iraq war or our economy, i would say no. but, i would not dismiss this either. should obama win the election, with a democratic congress behind him, there is much room for impact in this area.

[MadsenOMC]

Honestly, affirmative action isn't something I think about much. I am lucky enough to have been born with every unearned privilege a person can have. The questions you ask are good, difficult ones. In an ideal world, sure it would be wonderful if we only judged people by the content of their character. We don't live in that world though. Racism is still alive and well in this country, unfortunately.

An interesting piece from today's Chicago Tribune:

Coded prejudice is cloaked dagger

Subtle slurs still shock, humiliate targets; federal officials see increase in complaints

By Dahleen Glanton | Tribune correspondent June 30, 2008

Tomeika Broussard thought it was so absurd when she overheard her supervisor refer to her as a "reggin" that she just laughed. Then she realized it was the n-word spelled backward.

The only African-American in the small medical clinic in Los Gatos, Calif., Broussard said she was subjected to racial slurs almost daily. They were not the overt ones that most people would immediately recognize, but rather subtle, surreptitious code words that sometimes take a while to figure out.

"When 'reggin' came up, I'd never heard that word but I knew it was negative. So I had this kind of nervous, shocked laugh," said Broussard, 31, who was awarded $44,000 in damages last year in a racial harassment lawsuit filed after she was fired from her job as a file clerk. "I didn't know whether it was illegal, but I knew it was not OK. It was humiliating."

Federal officials say they have seen an increase in harassment complaints involving coded words and images in the workplace. Whether it is geared toward racial groups, religious affiliations, sex or sexual orientation, code words have proliferated in recent years through the Internet, where Web sites provide forums for creating, discussing and spreading new words promoting intolerance.

Overt cases on code words

Boss' comments: In May 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled a hostile work environment case against a Florida furniture store chain where a manager allegedly made racially and sexually offensive remarks to a black employee, referred to the African-Americans as "you people" and interracial couples as "Oreos" or "Zebras," and disparaged the worker for marrying a Caucasian man.

American Indians targeted: In November 2004, the EEOC settled a case against an upstate New York computer parts manufacturer where American Indians employees were subjected to frequent name-calling, war whoops and other derogatory statements referring to being "on the warpath" and to scalping, alcohol abuse and living in tepees.

Insults, denied opportunities: In March 2007, MBNA America agreed to pay $147,000 to settle a Title VII lawsuit alleging discrimination and harassment based on race and national origin. According to the lawsuit, an Asian Indian employee was subjected to ethnic taunts, such as being called "dot-head" and "Osama bin Laden," was assaulted by a co-worker with a learning disability who believed he was bin Laden's brother, and was denied training and promotional opportunities afforded his white co-workers.

Marriage attacked: On April 1, 2008, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled in favor of a white basketball coach at Iona College who said he was criticized by a college vice president for marrying a black woman whom he called an "Aunt Jemima."

Application labeled: On June 10, 2008, a Steeleville, Ill., home health-care agency settled an EEOC lawsuit charging that the agency denied an African-American woman a job and wrote "Black" across the top of her application.

*

With Democratic Sen. Barack Obama as the first African-American to head a major-party ticket, political analysts predict race will become a central issue in the presidential election. Negative messages about race used in the campaigns and in the media could spill over into the general public, the analysts said, conjuring old stereotypes and stirring fears that create racial tension.

"Historically, when a political party is identified with African-Americans, the opposing party uses race as a way to peel off white support," said Michael Dawson, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. "You can't do that by invoking the Civil War anymore, so what we have seen is this way to tap into racial resentments of some white Americans by talking about issues that are perfectly acceptable but have, in some minds, linkage to blacks and Latinos."

Terms such as "welfare queens" and "crime-ridden neighborhoods" have long been used to refer to African-Americans, Dawson said. In recent years, other analysts said, discussions about patriotism have increasingly become coded with phrases such as "full-blooded Americans" used to exclude certain ethnic groups, particularly Latino immigrants.

During the Democratic primary season, Sen. Hillary Clinton was accused of using racial code when she said that Obama's support among "hardworking Americans, white Americans," was weakening. The inference, critics said, is that only white Americans work hard.

The media played a role in promoting that concept, said Steve Rendall, senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog group. The biggest coded message, he said, was when pundits turned "working-class voters," into "white working-class voters."

Reading the subtleties
"We hear code words all the time in talk radio. It's a constant drumbeat," said Rendall, who also co-hosts FAIR's national radio show, "CounterSpin." "Code word bigotry is a secret code, a secret handshake between the listening audience and the host.

"Either conscious or unconscious, there is sometimes a mispronunciation of [Obama's] name or dwelling on his middle name [Hussein], suggesting that he is some covert Muslim. It is not overt racism but it is xenophobic."

Since the first racial code word lawsuit in 1996, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has seen an influx of cases involving racially coded messages. In the earlier case, the federal appeals court in Philadelphia overturned a lower court ruling and found in favor of a credit manager who sued Cort Furniture Rental. Carol Aman said she and other black employees were referred to as "you people" and "that one in there."

"People are smart and know they cannot use blatant terms, so they get the message across in other ways," said Sanya Hill Maxion, an EEOC lawyer in San Francisco who represented Broussard. "We are seeing different things trickle out."

As the country becomes more diverse, cases also have resulted from culture clashes between African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians, according to the EEOC.

For example, an assembly technician in San Jose, Calif., sued the company he worked for last year, claiming he was harassed by a Vietnamese co-worker who repeatedly played loud rap music with anti-black racial epithets. The lawsuit charged the co-worker also sang the lyrics within earshot of him.

In another case, a black employee was repeatedly called "Cornelius" in a reference to the ape character from the movie "Planet of the Apes." Another case involved a man of Chinese and Italian ancestry who was taunted daily by his foreman, who referred to him as " Bruce Lee."

Coded messages also have long been seen in political campaigns. During the presidential campaign 20 years ago, supporters of George H.W. Bush were accused of using code to ignite racial furor among white voters against Michael Dukakis by running an ad featuring the case of Willie Horton, a black man convicted of raping a white woman in Massachusetts. Two years ago during a tight Senate race, Tennessee Republicans featured a television ad that portrayed a white woman saying she had met Rep. Harold Ford, who is African-American, at a Playboy party. Ford lost the election.

Recently, Fox News Channel identified Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama," a term used to describe unwed mothers. Fox officials said that a producer "exercised poor judgment" during the segment.

Complaints overblown?
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, said the topic of code words has been overplayed.

"Any criticism of Obama is translated as a coded racial attack because he is black," said Bozell. "Conservatives have a language to their fellow conservatives. Liberals have a language to fellow liberals. African-Americans have a language to African-Americans. I don't see anything wrong with that.

But the University of Chicago's Dawson said code words can do damage even when their speakers say they were just joking or that they made an innocent mistake by using them.

"They're invoking harmful stereotypes," Dawson said.

Earlier this month, Maurica Grant, 32, who was fired from her job as a technical inspector with NASCAR, filed a lawsuit claiming that she was repeatedly harassed. Grant, who is black, said co-workers called her "Nappy Headed Mo" and "Queen Sheba." According to Grant, they also said she worked on "colored people time," meaning she often was late.

EEOC officials said they also have seen cases of code words used to identify ethnic groups in job applications.

"Racial harassment is alive and well and manifesting itself in so many forms, especially with advances in technology allowing programs that screen out certain addresses and names associated with certain groups," said Paula Bruner, appellate attorney for the EEOC in Washington. "It is a lot more pervasive than people appreciate."

According to Bruner, code words also show up on age and gender cases.

"An employer might use terms 'youthful' or 'enthusiastic' to describe the person that they want. Or they might say, 'We want someone who is more progressive.' That's like saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks," she said.

Meanwhile, Broussard, who was 26 when she filed the lawsuit, has tried to move on. But the memories are still painful, she said.

"I can't believe I put up with that kind of racism. It was 2004, and I thought that was unheard of," she said.

Four years later, new words crop up every day, fueled by the Internet.

Contributors to the online Urban Dictionary offer several uses for "reggin." Among them: "Used to trick black people."

Another Web site, the Racial Slur Database, defines 2,649 slurs. According to the site, its mission is "helping to make the world a better place."

[mel1ssa]

Honestly, affirmative action isn't something I think about much. I am lucky enough to have been born with every unearned privilege a person can have. The questions you ask are good, difficult ones. In an ideal world, sure it would be wonderful if we only judged people by the content of their character. We don't live in that world though. Racism is still alive and well in this country, unfortunately.

understood. if i didn't work in the field i work in, i probably wouldn't think about it that much either (even though, in civil rights measures, i am in a 'category' that is protected).

AA is a back-burner issue as compared to other hotter topics. i imagine that the passage of civil rights laws, generally, will increase over the next term though.

i still don't particularly love his comments mentioned in the article - these are 'sound-bites' which sit on the fence, and they're vague. i don't see much in the way of substance. obama has a background in civil rights litigation. i would think he would be able to provide more insight than this.

(oh, and, haven't read your full post yet, madsen. my comments above are without having read that article.)

[mel1ssa]

interesting article. i just read another one about race in the, well,.... race for presidency the other day. i can't seem to find it easily now, but it made many similar points about hints of obama's race being used to influence the voters.

the eeoc publishes statistics on how many racial discrimination complaints it receives each year on its site. (link here (http://www.eeoc.gov/types/race.html)-- bottom of the page under statistics). statistically, we can't say we have gained ground in this area over the last 10 years.

as for the other items mentioned in the article about employer discrimination -- this is exactly what i train our supervisors and managers not to do. what's scary is although they would never show their biases to me, i have no idea what they may say or do around their employees when no one else is around...

[MadsenOMC]

interesting article. i just read another one about race in the, well,.... race for presidency the other day. i can't seem to find it easily now, but it made many similar points about hints of obama's race being used to influence the voters.

the eeoc publishes statistics on how many racial discrimination complaints it receives each year on its site. (link here (http://www.eeoc.gov/types/race.html)-- bottom of the page under statistics). statistically, we can't say we have gained ground in this area over the last 10 years.

as for the other items mentioned in the article about employer discrimination -- this is exactly what i train our supervisors and managers not to do. what's scary is although they would never show their biases to me, i have no idea what they may say or do around their employees when no one else is around...

That is scary. So much is out of your hands, no matter how well you train them.

It is sad that more progress isn't being made, but it's the cold, hard truth. It may not be as overt (burning crosses, etc.), but like I said, racism is alive and well in this country.