True Affirmative Action

It is necessary to provide assistance to those who actually have been disadvantaged by act or fate. Anyone denied access to the opportunities of a lawful citizen in good standing has been wronged and calls out for action. I doubt that anyone disagrees with taking the necessary actions to offset such an injustice. Those who are handicapped, discriminated against, excluded by injustice, or prevented by persecution, surely deserve the restoration of lost opportunity.

Let us assume for the moment that we have universal agreement as to which persons will receive assistance. Let’s also assume that it is inclusive, regardless of sex, gender, ethnicity, national origin, handicap, religion, politics, appearance, or anything else ever used, or that might be used, to discriminate or persecute individuals or groups.

Even if we know who should receive affirmative actions. What kinds of acts should we provide? Which of the qualified individuals should receive what kind?

First, what should affirmative actions be?

Affirmation actions are acts by individuals, groups, or authorities where assistance is routinely prescribed, provided and assessed. They must at least replace the opportunity denied in direct opposition to the pressure of historic wrongs.

Affirmative action must never be direct discrimination against other individuals or groups that might have received historic advantages, regardless how or why they occurred.

A second wrong does not make anything right. New disadvantages do not erase or repair earlier denials; it just builds mistrust, disappointment, disillusionment, and despair. Punishing a new group of individuals cannot be the purpose of reparations. The object must be to give restored opportunities, not outcomes, to denied individuals.

The purpose must be to provide aid to those in need, not disadvantages to all others.

What forms might these actions take? Training, education, personal assistance, financial assistance, physical assistance, health care, tools, equipment, and all things necessary in preparation to compete, or the capacity to perform.

It cannot be setting aside jobs for any disadvantaged individuals or groups. It cannot be selecting the unqualified for training. It cannot be conferring degrees upon the uneducated. Never can it be extra points, reserved percentages, seniority not served, or any other special treatment during equitable competition.

It is preparing individuals to perform. It is making them capable by achievement, design, or device, to perform at the capable level, to compete effectively, to have an even chance. It is not a gift or imposition by authority conferring something unearned upon someone when they are incapable, been excluded, or are disadvantaged. Those are reasons to provide the assistance necessary to become a very qualified individual, but not to be the recipient of a gift signifying an accomplishment never earned.

Next, what might be the nature of some of these actions?

One could be job training of the amount and quality that will make a willing performer and a very highly qualified applicant into a viable employee.

Another could be scholastic tutors of the highest quality, energy, and enthusiasm to stimulate, and prepare a disadvantaged individual to the level of a superior student.

One should be Medical assistance in the form of treatment, therapy, and devices to provide the vision, mobility, energy, attentiveness, or the appearance to be a formidable competitor, a valuable contributor, and a reliable performer.

Other aid and devices could include high quality tools of the trade, modern performance devices, reliable transportation, safe clean housing, adequate money, or whatever other resources will get them there ready to compete and earn them credit against the odds and against previous wrongs, but by merit not by gift.

Not a job without qualification, and not a scholarship without academic achievement. That behavior must stop.

A second wrong, does not a right make. It steals integrity from the system and turns the oppressed into an oppressor. It reinforces the view that the system is unjust, even those aided by it are aware that it is wrong. Individuals know when they have received something unearned. It is as demeaning as being denied something you have earned.

Stop the current aberration that has become Affirmative Action.

Immediately start true affirmative action so that the disadvantaged can experience recognition they earn.