Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 v7 ucbtopaz-1.8; site ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!ucbvax!ucbtopaz!don From: don@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics Subject: Affirmative action Message-ID: <731@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Date: Sat, 16-Feb-85 22:36:00 EST Article-I.D.: ucbtopaz.731 Posted: Sat Feb 16 22:36:00 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 18-Feb-85 05:14:04 EST Organization: Univ. of Calif., Berkeley CA USA Lines: 117 Xref: watmath net.flame:8407 net.politics:7634 A couple of weeks ago, gam@amdahl, replying to a "Young White Male" who was flaming about alleged "reverse discrimination," offered some quotes from "The Economics and Politics of Race" by Thomas Sowell. I have no bone to pick either with Mr Moffitt, or with Mr Sowell. And in any case, this is not really a flame, but some comments on "affirmative action," as viewed from my own personal perspective. Sowell reports the disquieting facts that "affirmative action," while ostensibly designed to improve the economic position of minorities (read "blacks") in general, seemed to have resulted in the further separation of upper- and middle-class blacks from their less-fortunate brothers and sisters. He draws what I consider to be some unwarranted conclusions from outcomes so at variance with the professed goals of the program. To a certain extent at least, Sowell subscribes to the idea of "token" blacks, who, once on the corporate ladder, are simply pushed on up, since it would be embarrassing to have to explain why these tokens have failed to reach the heights of the hierarchy. I, on the other hand, basing my opinions on my own past experiences, have reached some rather different conclusions. Businessmen, in general, are concerned with building an organization that will operate at a profit, providing a living for them, their stockholders, and also for their employees; because if they don't operate at a profit, there will soon be no living for any of them, whether businessman, stockholder or employee. To this end, they seek people who can help them achieve their goal. In contrast to Sowell's interpretation, I believe that the facts support the conclusion that businessmen, in general, hold reasonable, rational perceptions about blacks, which appear to be, in effect, that educated blacks can serve them as well as educated whites, but that uneducated blacks are not likely to provide adequate service, as compared to whites (or Orientals). Their perception is not racist, but purely economic, and probably has been arrived at empirically, based upon past experience. Business does not have any responsibility for providing welfare to inadequate workers, of any color; if you can't hack it, you have got to go! Based upon my experience with black military and civilian personnel in work situations during the past 44 years, I judge that the best blacks were, and continue to be, the equal of the best whites, but that there is a much larger proportion of marginal and inadequate performers among the general population of blacks than among whites and Orientals. As a matter of fact, Oriental workers and students generally outdo both whites and blacks, as far as their capability, devotion to duty, and overall performance are concerned. There is a tendency among the black underclass to equate years of attendance at school with education. This is a misperception which is painfully obvious to anyone who has to attempt to deal with young blacks who, according to the available records, are honor high school graduates, but who are, to all in- tents and purposes, functionally illiterate, and who, in addition, exhibit a lack of the minimum self-discipline required to successfully hold down even the most undemanding position. What is not recognized, or admitted, is that people are not simply interchange- able parts; each person who enters into the work force brings a personality molded not only by his schooling, but by the mores of the social microcosm in which he/she grew up. Many young inner city blacks have had practically no contact with whites in any but the most casual and meaningless way, and have had no familial role models which would furnish them guidelines about how to comport themselves in a work situation. They often find themselves at odds with a management that expects them (as it also expects its other workers) to put the needs of the job ahead of their own desires and personal preferences, and in the absence of intimate observation of how employed fathers (and mothers) have handled such pressures, they often attribute what is simply a requirement of the job to malice and oppression on the part of their superiors. Having grown up in a milieu in which they were frequently unsupervised, they are self- indulgent about how important their own needs are, in comparison to those of their organization, with the result frequently being absenteeism, poor job performance, and a bad work attitude. It is small wonder, then, that the disparities reported by Sowell occur, and that the gap between the best and the worst is widening. I will not belabor the point, but ask yourself, do the role models of young inner-city blacks offer anything to fit them for an ordinary job? Sports stars, musicians, and stage and screen personalities, on the one hand (with only a pitifully small chance of being able to emulate them), and hustlers, pimps and dope dealers as the most visibly successful of those with whom they come in daily contact, on the other, are not exactly models for any entry-level job with which I am acquainted. In the case of the young man whose flame started all of this, I find it quite plausible that he was NOT discriminated against, but that one of that small group of educated blacks actually beat him, fair and square, for the job he felt was rightly his. At the other end of the scale, young inner city blacks probably feel that they are discriminated against, when a young white man is preferred to them, for just exactly the same reasons that the black was pre- ferred in the former case. Believe me, the average supervisor is overjoyed to get a well-motivated, prompt, bright employee, and will fight to keep him, for this sort of person is a pearl of great price, to be treasured above all! Why? Because this is a rare individual, and it is this rarity that makes him/her valuable! The world of work is inhabited by time-servers, by goldbricks, by marginal work- ers of all stripes; a real self-starter, one who can grab the ball and run with it, is not a frequent occurrence. In such a situation, race is so far down on the list of considerations as to be almost without meaning. The unvarnished fact of the matter is that "affirmative action" is political. It allows politicians to show that they have "done something about the prob- lem;" it provides a haven for middle-class whites (and blacks) who make very good money administering it; and it deludes the unthinking into the belief in an economic improvement that will never be achieved by such methods. What conclusion do I draw from all of the foregoing? Primarily, that life is, in general, a do-it-yourself project. You cannot expect that someone else will fight your battles for you, get your education for you, protect you from your own folly and self-indulgence. If you would be thought good and competent, worthy of employment and preferment, you had better BE good and competent; if you succeed anyway, ascribe it to luck, and be ready for the fall when you are found out. "Dh' aindeoin co theireadh e!" Don Curry Computer Facilities & Operations University of California Berkeley CA 94720 (415) 642-3043 ...ucbvax!ucbtopaz!don