THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070472
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
A four-part series
PART FOUR
SOLUTIONS
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 241 lines
So where do we go from here?
Will America ever be that land of equal opportunity to education and employment for all? Are admission policies and hiring practices based on race and gender the only ticket to that oasis?
Some experts see the answer in self-help programs. Some recommend keeping affirmative action policies but changing the term ``affirmative action,'' because it often conjures negative and misleading images.
The suggested alternatives to affirmative action can be as controversial as the government programs themselves. Here are three options that are being discussed: PUTTING DIVERSITY ON THE BOTTOM LINE
Many business analysts say that companies that want to grow and survive need a diversified work force that can deal with different customers and bring in different ideas.
That's where diversity training or management can help.
Not an affirmative action tool, diversity training highlights the positives of recruiting, retaining and promoting a work force of varying races, genders, cultures, religions and sexual orientations.
``The assumptions or motivations with affirmative action are moral or social reasoning. Managing diversity has a business rationale. There's a compelling reason, an economic imperative,'' said Kevin Hattery, educational services partner with the American Institute for Managing Diversity in Atlanta.
``It hits the bottom line. If you're not utilizing everyone in the work force, then that's an economic issue.''
But diversity training has other benefits in relation to affirmative action. When it comes to hiring, the managers and supervisors who have had the training may be more likely to select a diverse group of employees because they have been made aware of their potential.
``You see so much about the way to get a job is networking, someone who went to your college, or to your church,'' said Flo Barnick, a diversity awareness facilitator based in Fredricksburg, Va. ``If you're talking with someone you have nothing in common with, it's more of a struggle.
``We do have to break away and say that there are other things we need to look for in management and selection.''
Some companies, like chemical giant Hoechst Celanese, have diversity training that includes plans to address the concerns of white males, who often feel women and minorities are receiving unfair advantages as the company pushes diversity. Hoeschst Celanese also requires its 26 top officers to join organizations in which they are a minority. IBM requires its managers to attend annual training to ensure they understand the company's commitment to an inclusive work force.
Diversity work is also helpful in moving past the stereotypes often associated with affirmative action.
``What happens with affirmative action, any time a woman, a black person, gets a position, everyone thinks it's from affirmative action and that they didn't deserve it,'' Barnick said.
``It sets that person up to fail or struggle so much more. Whereas diversity training just shows the value of bringing our own different styles, cultures to the table.'' STRONGER SCHOOLS: ``THE ONLY SOLUTION''
Abigail Thernstrom, senior fellow at a New York-based think tank, Manhattan Institute, says affirmative action policies wouldn't be necessary if public school systems better prepared students.
``All the preferences, all the double standards, are driven by a very simple fact. A continuing racial gap between whites and Asians on one hand, blacks and Hispanics on the other, in terms of educational attainment,'' Thernstrom said.
``There is only one solution - do something about the quality of schools that urban African-Americans and Hispanics are going to. There's just no reason to have this continuing gap in what students know.''
Kenneth McKanders, general counsel at Eastern Michigan University, believes race-based assistance is still necessary, but grants to disadvantaged areas, such as blighted school districts, could help curtail that need.
``That would result in a number of minorities benefiting from it but not necessarily being exclusive to minorities,'' said McKanders, who is also section director of affirmative action for the National Association for Colleges and Universities.
``I think some do it now, have admissions targeting certain schools, but it could be expanded. There is no written-in factor that would exclude people based on race or gender.''
Thernstrom says she doesn't want to neglect women in this debate.
``It is very important to keep enforcing anti-discrimination laws . . . but my very, very strong impression is that women are already in the pipeline. Half of medical students are women, half of law students are women.''
But she says deep problems lie in the schools. Thernstrom, a recent appointee to the Massachusetts Board of Education, says more programs, such as school choice, are needed to introduce poor students to better schools.
``Get the kids out of these schools with a system voucher. Let them go to parochial schools, which are doing a very good job with disadvantaged kids,'' Thernstrom said.
``Let parents who want out, out at public expense.'' AFFIRMATIVE ASSIMILATION''
For many people on both sides of the affirmative action issue, substituting need-based criteria for race and gender seems a plausible compromise.
Mike Devaney, professor of finance at Southeast Missouri State University at Cape Girardeau, has studied the impact of affirmative action policies over the years.
``I think some of the difficulties that affect minority groups and women might be more class-oriented than race or gender,'' Devaney said.
He has developed the idea of ``affirmative assimilation'' to refer to integrating poorer people into the work force and helping them to feel part of mainstream society. He suggests looking at privatizing public housing, emphasizing self-reliance, helping single-parent households below the poverty line, and aiding inner-city youths and rural poor.
``Take agriculture, those subsidies have been captured by rich farmers, corporate farmers, even though the intent was to help the small family farmer,'' Devaney said.
``Affirmative action has worked kind of the same way in that a lot of the benefit has been captured by affluent or educated white women and middle-class minorities. Simply because they are the easiest ones to help.''
Devaney says that we not only need a better governmental focus, but Americans also need to expand the dialogue beyond the issues of race and gender.
``Americans are really uncomfortable talking about social class. It's not supposed to be a characteristic of American culture,'' Devaney said.
``I don't know if it's something they perceive that happens more in Britain, but they're more comfortable talking about discrimination.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
The armed forces cut a path
The military has its own experience promoting diversity, and it may
offer lessons for society at large/A6
Graphics
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION UNDER ATTACK
Affirmative action has been a cornerstone of American public
policy for more than a quarter-century.
Now it is under attack. The debate has already stirred deep
passions among Americans.
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star want to foster an
informed community discussion on this issue - one that gets beyond
the sound bites and explores the underlying principles.
Supporters have offered three main rationales for affirmative
action:
Compensation for past discrimination;
Correction of current discrimination;
Diversification as an end worth pursuing for its own sake.
The three are often lumped together, but in fact have very
different implications.
In thinking about it, consider the many different forms
affirmative action can take:
In business, setting goals and timetables for hiring and
promotion of women and minorities.
At universities, considering race as one among many factors when
admitting students.
In government contracting, setting aside a percentage of business
for firms owned by minorities or women.
AT THE CENTER OF THE DEBATE ARE PREFERENCES.
CRITICS SAY: Preferences discriminate against the people who
don't get them, mostly white males, and they are not true to
American ideals of individual merit and equal opportunity.
SUPPORTERS SAY: Discrimination is still widespread, and
overcoming it is still an urgent goal of public policy. Preferences,
when they exist at all, are one small part of the broader policy.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
1. Are preferences a fair way to provide opportunity for those
who were historically excluded from jobs, colleges and public
contracts?
2. Are these measures appropriate responses to present
discrimination? Do any of them go too far?
3. Is it enough just to be color-blind? Is it reasonable to
expect that businesses, schools and government agencies will be
color-blind without any prodding?
4. Is it possible ever to achieve absolute fairness? Preferences,
after all, are all around us.
In college admissions, for example, preferences are given to
athletes and children of alumni. In certain jobs, veterans get
preferences. In many occupations, knowing someone at the top will
result in a candidate being preferred.
If absolute fairness is the goal, should we then ban all kinds of
preferences, not just those based on race and gender?
5. How should the nation define the proper beneficiaries of
affirmative action programs? Should such programs concentrate on
groups that have faced discrimination in the past or look primarily
at current barriers?
6. Does the strong evidence of continued job bias justify keeping
affirmative action for those who have already moved into the middle
class? Or should programs be limited to minorities who are poor? Or
should the country go further and move to a new system that defines
beneficiaries in terms of economic status, not race?
Send your comments to Phil Walzer, The Virginian-Pilot, 4565
Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va. 23462; E-mail us at
walzer1(AT)infi.net; fax 490-7235; post to the news group hr.general
at http://www.infi.net/pilot/talk; or call Infoline at 640-5555 and
press 9898.
WHAT'S ON THE HORIZON?
STATE POLITICS
California is regarded as the national testing ground for
affirmative action because of an initiative expected to be on the
November 1996 ballot. The Civil Rights Initiative would ban state
agencies, schools and colleges from giving preference to applicants
based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Massachusetts Gov. William Weld is considering a proposal to
broaden affirmative action to include disadvantaged whites, to phase
out some affirmative action programs and to eliminate the agency
that monitors minority contractors. Weld is expected to outline a
new affirmative action program in a speech June 17.
PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS
Republican presidential hopefuls Sen. Phil Gramm, Sen. Bob Dole,
Lamar Alexander and Pat Buchanan have said affirmative action
should be repealed.
Gov. Pete Wilson, who is expected to seek the GOP nomination, is
dismantling California's affirmative action programs through
executive order.
President Clinton has appointed a task force to determine where
affirmative action is working and where it is not. The commission
could take eight months to a year to reach its conclusions, meaning
that its conclusions could arrive in the heat of the 1996
presidential campaign.
THE COURTS
Several important legal challenges are moving through the federal
courts.
In ``Adarand v. Pena,'' a Colorado highway construction firm is
asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a rule that gives
preferential treatment to companies that subcontract with minority
firms.
In Texas, attorneys representing a well-qualified but rejected
white applicant to a state university law school is challenging the
admissions policy as being biased against whites. That case is now
before a federal appeals court in Houston, but lawyers on both sides
expect it will end up in the Supreme Court.
A federal appeals court is weighing the case of a white New
Jersey schoolteacher dismissed during a layoff instead of a black
teacher with similar credentials.
by CNB