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■ In my opinion
Affirmative mis-action
No other nation has a racial mix
ture quite like the United States. It
provides a continuous source of fac
tion and friction, the inevitable result
of past subjugation and the equally in
evitable demands by the subjugated
for their rights.
America is so concerned with race
that decision-makers routinely use the
laudable goal of racial equality to justi
fy employing unequal criteria to eval
uate everything from job hiring to col
lege admissions to construction bids.
They call this program of unequal
treatment “affirmative action.”
Affirmative action constitutes Amer
ican society’s most significant attempt
to alleviate four centuries of slavery,
segregation, lynching, poll taxes, bru
tal child murders, rape and fear perpe
trated on behalf of a morally indefen
sible system of racial supremacy.
Affirmative action began in the
1960s and gained momentum
throughout the rest of the 20th century
until it reached today’s level of quiet
acceptance.
The term itself bears some evalua
tion. It sounds great. Not only does it
imply action, but it includes the posi
tive-sounding word “affirmative.” Of
course, the term “affirmative action”
gives no hint of what it actually means,
so let’s call it what it is: Race-based
preferences.
Certainly, blacks could still use
some help from society. On average,
black Americans have dramatically
lower incomes and lower levels of edu
cational attainment, home ownership
and employment than society at large,
according to federal statistics. They
also have higher rates of teen pregnan
cy, violent crime victimization, HIV in
fection and a lower life expectancy.
However, the black students who
CHUCK SLOTHOWER
TAKING ISSUE
gain admission to good colleges aren’t
the ones affected by the poverty that
generates the above statistics. This is
what John McWhorter, a black profes
sor at the University of California at
Berkeley, called the "... deathless lie:
That most black students come from
disadvantaged circumstances.” Most
black students at good colleges, in fact,
come from solidly middle-class back
grounds.
As McWhorter wrote in The Ameri
can Enterprise magazine, in the last
year that Berkeley employed race
based admissions preferences, more
than 65 percent of the students came
from households earning at least
$40,000 per year. Similarly, a 1989
study found that among 28 selective
universities, only 14 percent of the
black students came from households
earning $22,000 per year or less. Clear
ly, race-based preferences aren’t help
ing poor blacks.
Nothing can make up for what
black Americans went through, and
we should stop trying to erase the
memory of their oppression by helping
people who never suffered from it. No
student on campus today won their
freedom through the Emancipation
Proclamation or suffered the humilia
tion of poll taxes and the three-fifths
compromise.
While racism has faded dramatically
from the public and private scene, the
class structure has only strengthened.
In 1973, the wealthiest 20 percent of
households accounted for 44 percent
of total U.S. income, according to The
Associated Press and U.S. Census Bu
reau. In 2002, their share rose to 50
percent, while the poorest 20 percent
of American households lost ground.
President Bush’s policies have fur
ther solidified America’s class struc
ture. His signature tax cuts, especial
ly the elimination of the estate tax,
have overwhelmingly favored the
wealthiest Americans. While the
wealthy enjoy their tax cuts, the
poor struggle with high unemploy
ment, and the administration does
nothing to help the millions of poor
Americans who lack health insur
ance. Given the historical trend, one
can expect income inequality, and
other measures of the class gap to
continue to worsen.
The class gap deeply marks higher
education, which should act as a lev
eling influence but more often perpetu
ates familial privileges. This is a prob
lem of class, not race, and race-based
preferences are a poor tool to address
it. A white kid who grows up in an Al
bany trailer park has drastically less
hope of getting a good education than
a black kid from upper-class Lake Os
wego. It’s time to stop pretending that
the color of one’s skin is the primary
barrier to getting a quality education;
it’s money.
The University, the federal govern
ment and especially the state legisla
ture need to do more to help poor
students break out of their circum
stances. Race-based preferences
aren’t getting the job done.
chuckslothower@ daily emerald, com
INBOX
Listening to Bush's
bumbling is 'hard work'
Thursday's presidential debate
confirmed what many of us already
suspected: John Kerry is a strong, ar
ticulate statesman, while George
Bush is a bumbling, smug, arrogant
phony who had no business even
dreaming of being President.
Former Republican congressman
and conservative commentator Joe
Scarborough called Bush's perform
ance “embarrassing” and suggested
that the President “doesn't have a
long enough attention span to focus
for 90 minutes.”
Right-wing columnist and former
presidential candidate Pat Buchanan
said that Kerry “won this debate go
ing away” and Bush looked like he’s
“in way over his head.” Kerry came
prepared to present his plan for the
future of our country, while Bush
came ready to “give sound bytes,”
according to Buchanan.
Perhaps most insightful was con
servative pundit Tlicker Carlson’s ob
servation that watching Bush speak
was like “watching a drunk man
cross an icy street."
The most revealing Bush quota
tions were his 12 variations of
the phrase “it’s hard work.” The job
of President, is, I’m sure, difficult.
This is why it should be taken on by
a capable, intelligent, brave, strong
leader like John Kerry.
Jared Mason-Gere
Eugene
U.S. troops pay the price
for Iraq's realities
The Bush administration has
had a year to train Iraqis to
assist our troops. Bush mislead
the American people in a national
debate when he said 100,000
Iraqi security forces have been
trained. Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage testified to a
House Appropriations subcommittee
that many trainees have received
nothing more than a three
week course in police procedures —
what Armitage referred to as “shake
and-bake” forces. Only 8,000 of the
total are police who have received a
full eight-week course of training.
Because of the lack of trained re
placements, Defense Secretary Don
ald Rumsfeld told senators it might
not be possible to conduct elections
in some parts of Iraq. In a more
shocking assessment, Jordan’s King
Abdullah has said it will be impossi
ble to hold fair elections in the cur
rent state of chaos.
President Bush has failed to
acknowledge the realities in Iraq,
and now our service men and women
are paying the ultimate price.
Major Robert Tormey
U.S. Air Force, Ret.
Escondido, Calif.
The Bush administration
has planned for a draft
When Howard Dean tells Oregon
students that a draft is “likely” if the
current administration retains power,
he enjoys a tremendous amount of evi
dentiary support.
The degree of preparations that our
government has taken for a draft since
the election of 2000 is breathtaking.
From tightening the border with Cana
da to a provision in the No Child Left
Behind Act requiring schools to give
the federal government contact infor
mation about individual students, the
infrastructure for a draft is now in place
starting in June 2005.
Recently, The Atlanta Journal-Con
stitution published an article question
ing how Bush's military strategy of pre
emptive regime change can be
sustained without a draft. A growing le
gion now sees a fundamental inconsis
tency between Bush’s foreign policy
rhetoric and his claim that a draft is not
needed. Any more regime changes
must entail conscription, as the troops
will not fall from the sky.
Steve Ramirez
Topeka, Kan.
■ Editorial
Foreign aid
should come
in the form
of forgiveness
The Bush administration renewed its call
this weekend for the world to forgive Iraq’s
$120 billion in foreign debt, during a three-day
meeting of the World Bank. United States offi
cials were met with opposition from France,
which is advocating only 50 percent debt re
lief for Iraq this year.
We support the President’s effort to free the
people of Iraq from under the crippling weight
of debt payments. But we remind him and the
other members of the G7 that Iraq is not the
only country in need of forgiveness.
Between 1970 and 2002, African nations re
ceived $540 billion in loans from global lending
institutions such as the World Bank and the In
ternational Monetary Fund. Despite servicing
their debt to the tune of $550 billion in interest
payments, these African nations still owe $295
billion, according to a United Nations report en
titled “Debt Sustainability: Oasis or Mirage?” re
leased Thursday.
The report concludes that there is an urgent
need for a total cancellation of Africa’s debt to
foreign investors. The Bush administration
seems to agree.
“We are prepared to go to debt forgiveness of
up to 100 percent,” Treasury Secretary John
Snow told the World Bank.
Despite this pledge, the meetings disbanded
on Sunday without an agreement. Rather than
wait while the international community lum
bers towards consensus — which won’t hap
pen until next year at the earliest — we be
lieve a wise first step would be to place a
moratorium on future debt servicing for the
poorest and most heavily indebted countries
in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
This is hardly a new idea. We know it will
work because it has worked in the past. Can
cellation of international debts under the Mar
shall Plan helped to rebuild post-war Europe
and Japan. More recently, debt relief in
Mozambique and Uganda produced good, if
incomplete, results.
We are aware that debt forgiveness alone will
not solve the problems of worldwide poverty
and disease. But tying even partial debt relief to
health services could save hundreds of thou
sands, if not millions, of lives by freeing up re
sources necessary in the fight against, for exam
ple, the AIDS epidemic.
We often hear about the religious virtue of
forgiveness in our country. Debt forgiveness
is also an issue of virtue. Are we a virtuous
people? If so, then we need to stop talking
about debt forgiveness and do what it takes to
make it happen for those in the world that
need it most.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick
Editor in Chief
David Jagemauth
Editorial Editor
Steven R. Neuman
Managing Editor
Gabe Bradley
Freelance Editor
Jared Paben
News Editor
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