Editorial Fair Opportunity for All
April 26, 2011
Where we differ is on how these words translate into policy and whether affirmative action helps or hinders that goal. Just a few days before Mr. Lonnie spoke, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling pointed right at the heart of this debate (see excerpts). In an 8-4 decision in favor of the white plaintiff in a reverse-discrimination case, the court highlighted the destructive extremes to which affirmative action can be carried. Sharri Bey was a business education teacher at Piscataway High School in New Jersey, when, in 1989 she was laid off. The school board had had to make a choice between laying off Ms. Bey, or Debroah Willie, a teacher with the same credentials and exactly the same amount of seniority as Ms. Bey; as fate would have it, both women had started teaching on the very same day in 1981. The only difference between them was that Ms. Bey was white and Ms. Willie was black. This turned out to be the relevant difference. When faced with a tie such as this, the board's usual procedure is draw lots. But in this case, it decided to keep Ms. Willie, citing its affirmative action plan, which states that ``when candidates appear to be of equal qualification, candidates meeting the criteria of the affirmative action program will be recommended.'' As the Third Circuit pointed out, this action might have been permissible if the school board had been trying to remedy past discrimination or to correct an underrepresentation of minorities. But this was not the case; in fact, the percentage of black teachers in the school district exceeded the percentage of blacks in the workforce. Instead, the board put forward a vague goal of ``racial diversity'' to justify making an employment decision on the grounds of race. Such discrimination, the court found, was impermissible under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The Piscataway school board won't decide until later this month whether to appeal the Third Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court, which just declined to hear a Fifth Circuit decision striking down an affirmative action program at the University of Texas Law School. But with or without the Supreme Court, it's clear changes in affirmative action are in the works. Californians will vote in November on a Civil Rights Initiative that would end racial and gender preferences in state hiring and education programs. For many Americans, stories like Ms. Bey's force to the surface the question of whether affirmative action too often has careered off the cliff of good intentions. The values that Mr. Lonnie so eloquently laid out in his speech on Monday and which his own personal journey reflects are shared by all Americans. The issue now before us is whether we can reexamine this subject and come to a common understanding of what constitutes ``fair opportunity.''
