Racism and the Reverse

In the 1950s, a decision by the Supreme Court declared segregation in schools illegal. The case Brown v. Board of Education is probably the most famous court case in the United States. But, the Supreme Court based its unanimous decision on the fact that separate was inherently unequal. Thus it did not simply declare de jure (by law) segregation illegal, it declared de facto (in fact) segregation illegal as well.

This is the reason busing was used. Communities were typically divided by race. Thus, the school districts were also divided by race, and would now be illegal.

Here, it is necessary to know a little about the difference between criminal and civil cases. That link is useful though somewhat biased. Basically, to have a criminal case one needs to break a law that was passed by a legislature and can go to prison, whereas in a civil case, one only needs to hurt another, but cannot go to prison. So, when I say illegal, I do not mean that this is criminal, but doing so would make them lose civil cases.

Since then, the idea of forced desegregation has spread from the schools, to the universities, and even the workplace. Many people reject this notion of forced desegregation. Some call it reverse racism. Some go so far as to say that it is unnecessary because racism no longer exist. But that is simply not true as numerous studies show.

I will defend the current approach to dealing with racism. First, there is the fact that people are racist. Some even unconsciously so. Second, the system may be racist in itself (such as a biased test). Thus giving a boost to minorities does not necessarily let in people of a lower caliber.

Third, there is a simple situation to show why even someone that's not racist would make a bias against minorities. Suppose you have two resumes in front of you. They are functionally equivalent, except one person is white, the other is black. Which one do you pick? There are two reasons to pick the white person over the black one, even if you're not racist. First, you'd realize that some people are racist, which means that by having to make them deal with a black person, you could be losing customers. The second reason, though a misuse of statistics, is that a black person is more likely to be a criminal. Thus, you would hire the white person as good business practice.

So, there are at least the three ways above that minorities get discriminated against on a regular basis. What's wrong with giving the minorities a boost to counter these ways?

One counterargument goes like this: Racism exists and it is bad. But it is even worse when the government starts being racist to correct it. The way to end racism is not more racism. This seems like a valid point, but I believe history has shown it to be untrue, though this is hardly undisputed. This brings me back to Brown v. Board of Education. During the late fifties and early sixties the government forced different races to interact and mix together, and although it is impossible to trace the cause of the improved race relations today, I would say that the government actions had a hand in it.

Another counterargument is that the government should not be involved in such things in the first place. This is a harder belief to refute and perhaps has some validity. But I would like to point out that the government is not as involved as is commonly believed. The days of affirmative action are largely in the past. The government does not actively seek out racists and racist companies. Instead people who feel wronged sue the company or university that acted racists towards them in a civil case. And often, they lose. No one goes to prison for being racist. Moreover, many of the "reverse racism" policies are issued by the government only when it acts as an employer. Things that private employers would be able to do, if you believe the government shouldn't interfere. And many private employers, and universities, use these policies even though no one is forcing them to.

I think that our current system of dealing with racism works fairly well, and that the "reverse racism" policies are fair because, well, quite simply, if we don't have reverse racism, we will have only plain racism.