America is now “woke.” President Joe Biden declared that America’s long tradition of equality was not good enough for the new America. Then he signed executive orders that would expand racial equity “across the Federal Government.
Equality means that everyone is
given the same opportunities to be successful. Equity means that success is
guaranteed to everyone. There is a big difference. People are usually more successful
because they work harder or work smarter. However, this standard has been
replaced with success guaranteed to everyone – no matter their intelligence,
their work ethic, or their capabilities.
Schools, corporations, and
governments have declared that they will make decisions based on quotas for
race and gender. Who are some of the schools and corporations making such
drastic promises? Richard Bernstein named names and described some of the
problems.
Over the last few months, many Ivy League
and flagship state universities have moved away from a seemingly neutral
measure long used to assess applicants – standardized test scores – to give
minorities a better shot at admissions.
In May, Hewlett-Packard, the technology
company with 50,000 employees worldwide, decreed that by 2030 half of its
leadership positions and more than 30% of its technicians and engineers have to
be women and that the number of minorities should “meet or exceed” their representation
in the tech industry workforce.
That same month, United Airlines announced
that half of the 5,000 pilots it would train at its proprietary flight school
between now and 2030 will be women or people of color, with scholarships
provided by United and JPMorgan Chase helping with tuition.
There was nothing in the United
announcement showing that there were enough qualified blacks and women in the
pipeline so that a black/female quota of 2,500 new pilots could be filled, and
nothing about what the company would do if there weren’t enough qualified
candidates.
Delta Air Lines, Ralph Lauren, and Wells
Fargo are among other major American companies to announce hiring quotas
recently as a way to redress imbalances, according to Bloomberg News.
These are just some of the many “woke”
initiatives embraced by many of the pillars of American society in the year
since social justice protests erupted across the country in response to the
murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Bernstein explained that some people
believe that “racial preferences and quotas are necessary to end deeply
entrenched disparities.” At the same time, other people believe that it is
simply “a new form of discrimination.” He continued by reminding his readers
that “the stated goal of affirmative action was to simply eliminate unfair
discrimination.” However, the equity movement is based on the idea that America
is “irredeemably white supremacist, a view meant to continually challenge
American institutions and values.”
Bernstein noted that “one of the basic
post-civil rights principles of American life” is that “the same standards
should be applied to all people. Transitioning from “equality of treatment to
equality of outcomes” does away with this basic principle.
Once a measure is applied, not to the
unique individual but to that individual’s group identity, the idea that there
are neutral, common, universally applicable standards gives way to something else,
something subjective and political, with different measures applied to
different people, depending on their sex, race, or other characteristics.
The issue of standards, moreover, is not
just a matter of values or fairness. With the United States falling behind
other countries in math and science, most notably China, standards are matters
of competitiveness and national security – even as the military, CIA, and other
federal agencies embrace equity.
The movement to reject meritocracy
and old standards will weaken our nation in many ways. This is not just a call
to open the field and identify qualified candidates. This is a call to “reject
and redefine those standards” that prepare the most qualified and capable
doctors, engineers, pilots, etc.
When I enter an airplane, I do not
care one little bit about the sex or color of the pilot of that airplane. I
want a pilot who knows how to fly the airplane and has the skills to safely
take me to my destination. When I need surgery, I do not look at the sex or
race of the surgeon. I want a surgeon who is qualified to do the surgery.
When my car needs to be fixed, I take it
to a black mechanic because he has proven to be a good mechanic. When I want
good barbeque, I go to a black-owned business because I like their product.
When my daughter-in-law needed brain surgery, she trusted her health and life
to a highly recommended doctor of color – maybe from India.
Our nation is in for a world of hurt if/when
we do away with the old standard of equality of opportunity and bring in a new
standard of equity of outcome. We will be dumbing down our schools,
universities, corporations, and military. We should always strive for the best
qualified person and stop judging qualifications on sex and race.
I believe that there are highly qualified
people of both sexes and all races who should be encouraged to strive for the
best. I also believe that there are people of both sexes and all races who do
not have the capabilities to be top heart or brain surgeons, airline pilots,
and CEOs of corporations. The same opportunities should be available to
everyone. However, equity of outcome will not work.
No comments:
Post a Comment