Ramey: Why class-based affirmative action is a good idea
Photo: Brian Achenbach/Iowa State Daily
Affirmative action in the United States began with an executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy which required government make sure applicants are treated equally regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.
October 18, 2022
Race-based affirmative action is a topic usually brought up to discuss the question of racial justice and equality. It is not a mechanism used to give minorities an advantage but to put them on an equal playing field. Used to offset the consequences of decades of racist policies and attitudes that plagued our country.
It sounds like a desirable and needed policy to help the disadvantaged. However, it does not work as intended. There are many practical issues surrounding it (there are, of course, ethical concerns, but I will not discuss them here).
This is not by any means to say diversity is not important, but that we need to promote it fairly and correctly. Class-based affirmative action does not fall victim to many of the issues race-based affirmative action does. It also promotes diversity of race along with socioeconomic diversity.
In a response to my first article, a columnist suggested that I write about affirmative action. So, I decided to go through with it.
One huge problem affirmative action has is that it is not a durable policy. Our culture, political climate and our country’s attitude around race seem to change frequently and significantly. To achieve a fair and just affirmative action policy, it seems that we would need to account for this.
Which groups do we give an advantage to, and how much of an advantage do we give them? And most importantly, how do we change such policy over time that adequately corrects for all racial injustice in the present time?
I have not heard satisfying and convincing answers to these questions, and this leads to a bigger problem. There is no way to know when to stop. We cannot expect two different demographic groups to be identical, and we have no way of measuring what the “correct” outcome is.
If these questions can be answered, can we trust the people in charge to be competent in making the correct decisions?
I feel uneasy about this for a few reasons. One of them is that public universities are funded by the federal government. Could this relationship be exploited for political purposes?
Class-based affirmative action seems to handle these issues better. It is durable, as it’s self-evident that economically disadvantaged people will always have it a bit tougher, and it isn’t as politically charged.
There’s a huge advantage to a policy that is popular; in fact, most people support class-based affirmative action. I would prefer us to push for something that is popular among the people and less controversial.
A controversial point regarding race-based affirmative action is the mismatch effect. The argument is that due to the large racial preferences given to minorities, the beneficiaries get into higher-level colleges that do not suit them and actually hurt them by “setting them up for failure.”
This could reinforce stereotypes and stigma as well as undermine the self-confidence of the student. Is this justice? Is this how we should be approaching racial equality?
It should be noted that this issue is far from being one-sided; there are still many experts who are skeptical of this “mismatch effect” and still believe that aggressive racial preferences are important. This is a complex topic that I cannot settle here, but you, the reader, can decide for yourself which side is more convincing.
The reason I believe in making affirmative action class-based is that, when done properly, it seems to do a good job of maintaining or even increasing racial diversity with a more socioeconomically diverse student body. In my opinion, this is just as important as racial diversity — it doesn’t seem to suffer any sort of mismatch effect.
Nuke | Oct 19, 2022 at 8:30 am
Careful, Ramey. Your plan smacks of socialism! Whatever would the Capitalists do if the poor got an education! /s
Affirmative action, as imperfect as it is, was put in place to correct systemic racism put in place by, you guessed it, white capitalist men who created a world in which both race and class are inextricable. And let’s stop talking about racism in the past tense, shall we?
BTW, why are you so worried about federal dollars? It’s not like much/any money goes to *gasp* liberal arts and sciences. A simple search provides this info (https://www.research.iastate.edu/news/iowa-state-receives-record-284-2-million-in-external-research-funding-in-fy2022/). So it appears you are taking a page out of the Tucker Carlson book of “just asking questions” in the hopes that people will draw their own conclusions. Is that lazy writing? bad journalism? or straight up manipulation? I’m just asking questions.
David Jackson | Oct 30, 2022 at 9:33 pm
“Affirmative action, as imperfect as it is, was put in place to correct systemic racism put in place by, you guessed it, white capitalist men who created a world in which both race and class are inextricable.”
-Nuke
Lol, notice the standard issue narrative of the political left is always stated as undisputed fact to gloss over the reality that they are wholly incapable of backing it up with evidence. Dear Nuke, please provide proof to support this wildly false claim.
“And let’s stop talking about racism in the past tense, shall we?”
-Nuke
Exactly, the self-described progressive left can’t politically survive in a electoral climate where people are on the same team, united by a single identity of being citizens of a country they love. You’d never be able to convince enough of them to be foolish enough tear it all down so it could be rebuild it into your BS neo-Marxist utopia if they weren’t convinced it was evil first would you? Keeping us divided by our immutable characteristics like race and sex and angry with each other, and then hiding behind the projection of claiming everyone who questions you is the one who’s the racist or sexist bigot, is key isn’t it?
David Jackson | Oct 31, 2022 at 7:18 pm
“Affirmative action, as imperfect as it is, was put in place to correct systemic racism put in place by, you guessed it, white capitalist men who created a world in which both race and class are inextricable.”
-Nuke
Lol, notice the standard issue narrative of the political left is always stated as undisputed fact to gloss over they are wholly incapable of backing it up with evidence. Dear Nuke, please provide proof to support this wildly false claim.
“And let’s stop talking about racism in the past tense, shall we?”
-Nuke
Exactly, the self-described progressive left can’t politically survive in an electoral climate where people are on the same team, united by a single identity of being citizens of a country they love. You’d never be able to convince enough of them to tear it all down to rebuild it into your neo-Marxist utopia would you? Keeping us divided by our immutable characteristics like race and sex and angry with each other, and then hiding behind the projection of claiming everyone who questions you is the one who’s the racist or sexist bigot, is key.