White women are the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action yet it is still seen as a “black program ” by most Americans --including white females
/An excerpt from Trojan Horse: Death of a Dark Nation. By Anon. Published by Trojan Horse Press, 2009. Available [HERE]
Debunking the 7 Most Common Affirmative Action Myths
MYTH #1 : Affirmative Action Is An Entitlement Program Created By Blacks For Blacks
Black people did not create affirmative action, the terminology, or the where, when, or how it became a policy. Blacks do not control Corporate America’s or the US government’s hiring or affirmative action policies. Blacks do not have the power to implement any policies, just or unjust, at any white owned corporation, college, or university.
MYTH #2: Blacks Benefited The Most From Affirmative Action.
According to the US Labor Department, the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action were white women. Between 1972 and 1993:
* women architects increased from 3% to nearly 19% of all architects
* women doctors more than doubled from 10% to 22% of all doctors
* women lawyers grew from 4% to 23% of all lawyers
* female engineers went from less than 1% to nearly 9% of all engineers
* female chemists grew from 10% to 30% of all chemists
* female college faculty went from 28% to 42% of all college faculty
White women are the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action yet it is still seen as a “black program ” by most Americans --including white females ( ! )
White females refuse to credit affirmative action for their sorely needed boost up the corporate and professional ladder. White females also shy away from taking any heat for one of America’s most unpopular policies, even as they line up to claim their “minority” status under affirmative action. Most ignore the FACT that the civil rights movement preceded the (white) women’s movement AND paved the way for (white) women’s rights.
However, the facts -- and the timeline -- cannot be disputed. Before the civil rights movement and affirmative action, there were few (to none) white female CEOs, executives, surgeons, lawyers, judges, university deans, governors, mayors, dentists, managers, technicians, electricians, carpenters, supervisors, politicians, or US Secretary of States.
Before the civil rights movement and afirmative action, most female workers - white and non-white -- were segregated in the “pink ghetto” of clerical, domestic, teaching, and sendce-related jobs.
Affirmative action programs opened doors for people of all ethnic groups, including Native Americans, Arab Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and whites. For example, in the late 1970s, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) created an upward mobility program (aflirmative action) that allowed government employees to train as air traffic controllers and electronic technicians. The majority of people in the FAA’s “affirmative action” program were white men and women.
The lion’s share of the highest-paying jobs and university seats still go to whites. The handful of blacks who break past the color barriers in the highest paying professions are a minority in more than one sense of the word - and often face relentless racism behind closed corporate doors. While whites are busy grumbling about “affirmative action” and the small number of blacks making more than $75,000 a year, the nation’s workforce is being devastated by outsourcing and downsizing.
MYTH #3: Blacks Need Affirmative Action To Compete With Whites
Affirmative action is a lot like child support. It was supposedly created because some employers -- like some parents -- wouldn’t do the right thing on their own. Affirmative action was a legal remedy that opened doors to minorities and women that had been previously closed to all but white males.
Even though affirmative action is seen as “giving” blacks something they haven’t earned, there’s a limit to what affirmative action can do. It cannot attend classes, or pass college or bar exams. lt does not get dressed in the morning, drive the car to work, or do any work at all. Afhrmative action is little more than a ticket of admission to the wildly successful party that’s been going on for centuries.
