The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down Michigan’s ban on Affirmative Action Nov. 15. The ban, known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, was added to our State Constitution in 2006 after being approved by 58 percent of the electorate.
According to a Nov. 16 Detroit Free Press article, Section 26 of the Constitution states that no Michigan institution can discriminate or “grant preferential treatment,” based on “race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
This is a step backward when it comes to gender and racial equality in Michigan and the U.S.
This nation is supposed to be a nation of principles, where we are all given an equal opportunity and success is based on merit. Affirmative Action is simply discrimination with a different name and against a different group.
How long before our country eliminates all forms of official discrimination against all people? And why can race be a factor when it benefits minorities while injuring the majorities, but it is not OK if it is used in the opposite way?
If we are all supposed to be equal under the law, then why not treat everyone equal under the law? The stereotypical poor white student should not be considered a second-class citizen when compared to a stereotypical poor black student, nor should that situation be reversed.
These racial preferences in admissions and employment will keep racial stereotypes and animosities alive. It actually forms the stereotype of the black student at the University of Michigan, who only made it that far because of her or his race. It just gives racist people another way to devalue the achievements of minority students in academics and employment.
It would be better if everyone was truly treated equally, because this policy is unfair and causes more problems than it solves.
If the Court of Appeals’ ruling is upheld, how long will the sons have to pay for the sins of their forefathers? And how long will new generations of black people benefit from oppression that they, themselves, never experienced?
Will white men (the only group considered a “majority group”) be discriminated against in this manner until we are leagues behind the rest of America? If that does happen, will we get our own Affirmative Action laws to bring us back up to par?
This brings me to the icing on the cake. The court struck this ban down because they claimed that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In the majority opinion, the court said that it unfairly disadvantaged minorities because it would be easy for a person to ask a university to consider other things during the admission process, but “the same cannot be said for a black student,” advocating for a “race-conscious admissions policy.”
Basically the court held that discrimination must continue because specifically banning it also constitutes discrimination. This raises a lot of questions when it comes to race and gender relations, and one can only hope that Attorney General Bill Schuette succeeds in his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If he does, the citizens of Michigan will have taken a step forward when it comes to gender and racial equality. Merit in academics and employment will have won a victory over America’s unpleasant past.
