Editorial
Quotas emphasize
affirmative action
The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of temporary use of
strict racial quotas is a victory for affirmative action. It pro
motes civil rights and eliminates a history of discrimination
in Alabama.
The decision rejects the Reagan administration’s stance
that racial quotas are not the best way to fight for discrimina
tion, and establishes a precedent for the use of quotas to
remedy severe cases of past discrimination.
The 5-4 decision upheld two lower court rulings requir
ing Alabama to promote one black state trooper for every
white state trooper. The court placed conditions on the pro
motions saying qualified blacks must be available and the
order will be dropped when the state develops an acceptable
promotion procedure.
The decision also calmed fears that tin; court would sup
port the adminstration's position on affirmative action
because of Reagan's appointment of Antonin Scalia as a new
associate justice.
The conditions stated in the ruling are very important
because they prevent future abuse of the court order and
reduce the propensity for reverse discrimination. In the fight
for equal employment practices, reverse discrimination has
become a major obstacle. The search for a happy medium —
one that promotes affirmative action without harming white
workers — has not ended. Unfortunately, in many cases the
effort to give minorities more opportunities has backlashed
into the white community. Ironically, some quotas force
employers to overlook more qualified whites and a similar
form of discrimination occurs.
Unlike affirmative action plans to lay off white workers
over blacks, this recent quota deals with promotions. Accor
ding to Justice Lewis Powell, it does not "disrupt the lives of
innocent workers."
The wording and restrictions in this court- ordered
quota does not lend itself to any form of discrimination. The
Alabama case was a unique form of repeated discrimination.
The state ignored repeated orders to hire black state
troopers. And it never carried out promises to hire black
troopers.
The issued court orders also were not enforced. In 1984,
12 years after the first court order, the state wras forced to
promote eight black troopers and eight white troopers. This
is the only instance in which the order was followed.
Alabama’s resistance to these quotas emphasizes the
discrimination practiced by the state. Justice Powell stated
in his concurring opinion that it was this "persistent viola
tion of constitutional rights" that gave the court the power
to impose the quota.
The Supreme Court’s decision is integral to the wider
concept of affirmative action and civil rights. It delivers a
message to employers that discrimination will not be ac
cepted. In bis concurring opinion Justice William Brennan
said the court's ability to ". . .employ racial classification
essential to remedy unlawful treatment of racial or ethnic
groups subject to discrimination" had been well
established.
The flexibility of this quota is its strongest advantage. It
allows states to develop their own promotion procedures as
well as light the discrimination problem. Nobody should be
upset at the ruling because it promotes the idea of civil
rights. It is a fair and elficient method for curing a persistent
problem.
I HOPE HE
DOESNT MAKE ME
LOOK BAD..
Letters
Preached views
Well, here we go again.
’Round and 'round with the
abortion issue.
My first draft of this letter in
cluded a list of questions ad
dressed to men about whether
or not they would carry a baby
to term (if they could) under
certain conditions. (You can im
agine my examples: after rape,
at age 12. if you had AIDS and
would be passing it on to your
child, if childbirth endangered
your life, etc. . .) Typical.
I decided that that had been
done just as often as all of the
arguments 1 am getting so tired
of, and are constantly printed in
the ODE and discussed in
classes.
1 notice that a lot of the argu
ing comes from people (men
and women alike) who have
never been in the situation
themselves and feel that they
can preach their views (no mat
ter how uneducated about the
issue they may be) and force
their opinions on women and
men experiencing the intense
frustration, anxiety and pain
that comes from making a deci
sion weighing the lives of their
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children, their own lives, and
the lives of their families.
You cannot know what that
means until you have been
through it youself— being preg
nant with, or the father of. the
child. It is true, abortion is
either RIGHT or WRONG, but it
is so only in terms of the
specific situation.
Melanie Moseley
Theater arts
Coerced fees
Recently, I found in my
mailbox a disturbing message
from the Accounting Depart
ment. It was a two part message:
The first part was a bill for
$172.55. This, in itself, is
disturbing enough for someone
whose bank account rarely
totals half that figure. The ma
jority of the hill was made up by
the infamous "dollar a day"
fine levied against you if you
move out of University housing.
It accounted for $152 of the
$172.55.
The second part was a letter
which informed me. in no
uncertain terms, that the above
charges were due, and 1 should
make haste in paying them. If 1
happened to be negligent, 1 was
informed that, "...assessment
of late fines, interest, assigning
to the State Department of
Revenue or other collection
agencies... requiring of past
due amounts in order to enroll
for the current term, or other ap
propriate legal action" would
be taken. Righting words to say
the least.
1 realize now that this univer
sity is primarily concerned with
money. A dollar a day does not
equal a dollar a day. but a lump
sum of cash although the con
tract 1 signed states. “ . . . pay $1
per day for every day of service
remaining in the academic
year. ...”
1 have no history of had
credit; in fact. I’ve paid tuition
the first day possible. Apparent
ly that’s of no concern. All that
matters is that the bills at
Oregon Hall are filled to the
brink with coerced payment.
James Anderson
Anthropology
Thing to avoid
Mary Sullivan raises an im
portant point in her rebuttal to
Jeff Hoyt (ODE. Feb. 11) concer
ning the pro-choice/pro
abortion distinction.
While agreeing with most of
what she says, l do take excep
tion to her statements concern
ing “all of the other men
who... clutter the
Emerald. . .with their views on
this issue.”
Numerous “pro-life” letters
in the Emerald have been writ
ten by women: e.g. Lori
Parkman, to name a perennial
contributor. 1 seldom comment
on abortion issues because as a
man 1 will never be directly fac
ed with such a decision;
however, 1 am, and always have
been pro-choice (NOT “pro
abortion”).
Beware of stereotypes, Ms.
Sullivan, they can divide you
from your allies.
Hiawatha
Graduate, music
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