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Affirmative Action in the Year 2525

By W. James Antle, III on 7.20.09 @ 1:17PM

In his New York Times column, Ross Douthat looks at affirmative action in 2028 -- the year Sandra Day O'Connor promised us we wouldn't need affirmative action anymore. (What? That sounds more like a policy judgment that should be made by an accountable elected official than a reading of the law by a judge? Well, grow some empathy!)

Douthat's analysis is spot-on, but two points that he tiptoes up to deserve to be made explicit. The first is the role of class. There's a certain irony in white liberals employed at elite institutions at which women and minorities are frequently underrepresented railing against "white skin privilege." Most of them got to work at these institutions after graduating from fine colleges, to which they were admitted after performing well on the SATs and AP exams -- two exams that would surely fail any "disparate impact" test. But that's okay because that's meritocracy. White skin privilege is when a bunch of boring blue-collar "fire buffs" who study fire manuals and stuff pass tests to qualify for jobs that some politically connected minister would prefer to see his buddies get.

The second point that deserves amplification is affirmative action as a "source of permanent grievance among America's shrinking white population" that "corrodes the racial attitudes of its victims." If Ricci-style racial preferences continue after the United States becomes a minority-majority country, it will fuel the growth and political viability of white racialist politics. (Something like the British National Party could happen here.) When American Renaissance-style white nationalists make the argument that whites should organize politically along racial bloc lines just like everybody else, most whites roll their eyes because the beneficiaries of racial preferences are more obvious than the victims. But a few more decades of mass immigration plus affirmative action could change that.

White nationalism would be very bad because, among other things, when the former majority population of your country sees itself as a distinct identity-politics group, you no longer have a country. You are then reduced to a squabbling bunch of identity-politics groups. For people who are rightly concerned about the moral evils of racism, this possibility seems like something more worthwhile to worry about than Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy," which got a bunch of white people who supported George Wallace -- an actual segregationist -- to instead vote for a Republican who helped create affirmative action.

View all comments (18) | Leave a comment

Bob| 7.20.09 @ 1:40PM

Antle, I happen to agree that affirmative action based on race is no longer really necessary. However, given the degradation of our schools in poor neighborhoods, I believe that affirmative action based on socio-economic status does have some merit. Whites in poor areas are receiving poor educations as well as Hispanics and blacks.

However, the mistake that you and others make is that you expect the courts, through cases like Ricci, to provide this action. I consider that an activist judiciary. Instead, Congress should be passing laws in this arena.

Consider why, throughout all this discussion of Ricci, and you and others don't make the comment that this should be the purview of Congress, and not the courts. This inconsistency is proof that the old tired phrase of judges "making law" is just ideology gone wild.

W. James Antle III| 7.20.09 @ 1:56PM

Bob, this is how I concluded my column on Ricci:

"But the Frank Riccis of the world can't count on the courts alone. The Ricci case exposed the extent to which anti-discrimination laws, intended to protect all Americans regardless of color or creed, can be used by the politically connected to discriminate. Lawmakers should take notice. "

sestamibi| 7.20.09 @ 1:57PM

. . . but we don't even know if man will still be alive!

George Bruce| 7.20.09 @ 2:19PM

In discussing the possibility that the future will settle into a permanent condition of second class citizenship for whites at a time when whites may be less than a majority of the US population, the only thing you find to worry about is that whites may take it badly.

I don't know where to start with you.

Assuming that whites are no longer the majority, and given that some whites will always believe that their race is the root of all evil, it should be clear that whites will have no recourse through the ballot box to redress that grievance. The shouldn't place too much hope in the courts either, packed with appointees from Obama and others who believe that anti-white bigotry should be government policy.

And given that these same whites who must sit at the back of the bus when it comes to education and employment, are probably also being taxed at combined federal, state and local rates that well exceed 50%, their condition will be worse than mere second class citizenship. Their condition will be the moral equivalent of sharecropping. If whites do not behave very, very badly in response to such a situation, they will have tacitly consented to slavery in the country their ancestors made great.

Old Texican| 7.20.09 @ 2:58PM

George Bruce
Excellent comment/ conclusion.

but...

It ain't gonna' happen. If we productive types, (whatever color), sit down...the wheels come off and everybody goes hungry...

If we hunker down...and say "NO!" then the bastards will come to our homes to steal our food, then...
(That is known as self defense.)

I SHALL not believe our military will fire on Americans practicing self defense. If they do fire, I believe they will fire to miss.

Now you will recall why Obama wants his own private "blue-shirt" army.

Marc Jeric| 7.20.09 @ 3:08PM

Teacher unions are the culprit; they lead those youth indoctrination camps called schools. They teach our youngsters about the big bad white man who killed off Indians, enslaved blacks, exploits workers, destroys environment. And only 45% of them "teach" - the other 55% administer, coordinate, facilitate, inter-relate, develop, summarize, correlate, lobby, lead contract negotiations - I am out of breath but sure there are more of these "activities" occupying them in their extortion efforts.

Bob| 7.20.09 @ 3:24PM

Antle, thank you for the response. I stand corrected. It's good to seem some logical consistency here. Kudos.

Oldefarte| 7.20.09 @ 3:44PM

If education, job promotion,etc. disregards all tests and instead, grades [practices socialization politics] by PASS or FAIL; it would be easier to practice discrimination, disenfranchisement, gentrification, racism,etc. Forget THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST, and instead, substitute DUMB AND DUMBER!!!!

M McGregor| 7.20.09 @ 5:06PM

Tricky Dick’s “Southern Strategy” reflects the same level of honesty as the customary behaviour of our main political parties in the UK. Before each General Election they have always carefully distanced themselves from their usual promoting of mass Third World immigration, and even registered their (temporary) opposition to it. Margaret Thatcher was a ‘good’ example in 1978, when on TV she called for a "clear end to immigration" and said that "people are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people of a different race". Completely insincere, of course, and once she’d won immigration soared under her Home Secretary Michael Howard.

Until now, the well-known short memory of the electorate has enabled them to repeat the same lies over decades without much fear of being effectively challenged. Until Now. As you will have read, today we have a British National Party which actually says what it means, and in spite of the concerted efforts of the entire political Establishment + 100% of the media using every method both legal & illegal to misrepresent or silence them, they are getting their message across, and being elected.

Whether or not White Americans have enough people with the same level of concern for their own kind, and good old-fashioned ‘guts’, remains to be seen.

White Nationalist| 7.21.09 @ 10:26AM

No discussion of white minority is truly
complete without considering the conditions
in South Africa as it pertains to the Anglo-Boer
people ("plaasmoorde").

someone| 7.23.09 @ 2:15PM

Yeah, it will develop.

White racial politics will come about by necessity. When non-whites get to such a high number, and promote their racial interests over our own, it will be obvious to even the most naive white observer as to what is going on here.

And I'm sure you conservatives will be there to steal away the thunder, like Nixon did.

This time, the white movement will know what you Republicans are up to and won't fall for your Jewish lies.

JvB| 7.23.09 @ 2:42PM

Kwanservitism has missed the boat as usual .. still barking up the wrong tree. The future will look very different.

It's Gone| 7.23.09 @ 3:32PM

Admit it! The White, Christian country of America has already been destroyed and White Jewish, Americans have led the demolition crews.

H. Thurston Montroy-Smith IV | 7.23.09 @ 11:23PM

I say, I read this nasty bit of business at my country club this morning and nearly dropped my monocle into my champagne mimosa. What has become of our great Republic, indeed! Now to find that colored lad to refill my glass. It is getting harder and harder to find good help these days.

Trevor| 7.24.09 @ 6:40AM

Old Texican said, "I SHALL not believe our military will fire on Americans practicing self defense. If they do fire, I believe they will fire to miss. "

Good luck with that belief. Self-defense to you will be "dangerous extremism" to the overlords. The Jewish elite will sic their willing executioners they've been using in Iraq and Afghanistan on "homegrown radicals" and the dogs will obey. Stockpiling our own food and resources will only be effective if we stay out of their sights in the first place.

I'd encourage you to stop having faith in anything the current system has to offer, including the American military. What we need is revolution and secession.

WRosencratz| 7.24.09 @ 10:28AM

Over 6,000 years of affirmative action for white males and there is nary a squeak of protest from "conservatives." Yet, we get a slightly-left-of-center Black Man in the White House and we are now being warned that "articulate" white supremacists would be in danger of ripping the country apart because they don't want a level playing field for womyn and minorities.

In order to ensure race relations are not hurt in the future, we must do four things - (1) increase affirmative action at all levels until total and absolute equality is achieved, (2) increase immigration from historically non-represented countries to ensure that the white male voting bloc is further diluted, (3) add hate crime penalties to anyone caught convicted of a crime who has expressed anti-affirmative action views, and (4) increase educational awareness of white skin privilege in order to foster greater support for affirmative action.