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February, 2003


Capitalist Affirmative Action
by Frank Scott


The injustice of American racism is wedded to the injustice of
capitalism, under which profit  rules  mean that a minority  wins, at
the expense of a majority’s loss. Among the majority of losers, due to
our nation’s early history of wealth creation based on slave , and not
just wage labor , are a high percentage of blacks.

But while the practice of Affirmative Action (AA) for the rich leaves
none of them behind, that  is hardly the case with the  racial form of
AA  . It was allegedly created to end racism, but it really functions to
benefit the system by letting a few more  subjects in, while  keeping
still  greater numbers  out. Further, it has been expanded to include
far more than blacks, and has done more for individual women and latinos
than it has for the greatest number of black americans.

The system-saving program of AA works for only a small group of
nonwhites,  yet without it, America would be even less colorful than it
is at present. This color practice, however, does nothing for the great
majority of people, black, white or in-between, who never benefit from
any affirmative action whatsoever. AA tends to make  them feel slighted,
envious , and to become more individualist, more divided from their
fellow citizens, and  even more racist.

Economic losers in America’s casino of capital number mostly whites ,
simply as a reflection of the population. If the majority of Americans
were blue-skinned,  then blue-skinned people would be the greatest
number of poor, working poor, middle class debtors, etc. The
categorization of humans according to race is part of the moral
sickness  of the system.  We are  one human race, and we only have
different skin tones for reasons of our geographic, and then genetic
origins . Skin tone should have  nothing to do with  differences that we
develop by being culturally  shaped in different times and places.
Perpetuating  racial difference only works to keep  humanity apart. It
nurtures  profit and loss economics, thrives on the exploitation of
humans , creates racial division, and reinforces ignorance about who and
what we are.

The longer we  accept ourselves as what we are labeled  by those who
benefit from our ignorance, the longer we remain  intellectual , moral
and economic losers.

Policies that allow a few into the upper class while dumping more into a
lower class  only serve to perpetuate the greater injustice that
prevails. And that injustice will continue as long as policies like AA
are seen as promoting social justice, when all they do is reward some
individuals, at the expense of most of society. Debates over the
preservation of AA miss this point , since neither side  represents
fairness in any but a rhetorical , individualistic and antisocial sense
.

The cancer or polio choice that corporate capital offers its political
consumers is similar to what is offered to those seeking equality
through present AA policy, which almost always creates lesser evils and
negative interpretation of the word. Can white men be macho louts? Well,
why can’t  a token handful of black men  also aspire to these depths.
Can men be obnoxious loudmouths? Then why shouldn’t a  handful of token
women  display their egos in annoying fashion. This is what  striving
for equality in a system predicated on inequality creates: another
small, token group of entrants into a market place thriving on
dehumanizing deceit, manipulation and individualistic striving for gain,
at  individual costs that contribute to and maintain social inequities.

Affirmative action for the rich  is what put the current dim bulb in the
white house, after business and financial experience in which  he
displayed no more than average competence.  AA policies for his kind
assure success for all members of that class. This is nothing like the
form  which applies to blacks, in which it seems that  for every one
sent to Penn State, there are ten sent to State Penn. For every
descendant of slavery who becomes a lawyer, corporate capital  assures a
measure of affluence and acceptability, but his far more numerous, far
less affluent kin remain behind, making beds or driving cars for white
people, at best, or filling prisons, at worst.


Capitalism’s Affirmative Action works for all  rich white people,  for
very few  nonwhite people, and not at all for  working white people. The
term “white privilege” has become a slur that covers everyone from  Park
Avenue to  Trailer Parks, as though whites all experience the same
financial success. But falsely equating all whites is  as dumb as
lumping all of any group together, without regard to its financial
status. This narrows reality to the width of a president’s brain.

The  idea that every white person in America is privileged, compared to,
say, Colin Powell or Denzel Washington, is a product of negative
equality that gives us all a right to be stupid . No matter what
division of the one race - human - we may think we belong to, this
nation makes it possible for us to be equally ignorant,  manipulated,
divided and  conquered. That is what’s wrong with   affirmative action
that offers small scale  individual profit, while causing large scale
social loss .

We need social action that is an affirmation of “life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness”. One that confronts our vicious  racist history,
not by masking it with individual blame or benefits , but by confronting
it with social responsibility that transforms reality in democratic ways
that  change its economic base of support. Creating individual black,
latino  or female  affluence without benefiting all members of the
group, is simply using social capital for antisocial purposes . Until
that capital is under a more democratic control that guarantees greater
social good for all people , we will remain  a divided and conquered
human race. In its present form of providing only individual benefit,
affirmative action is part of the problem, not the solution.


Copyright (c) 2003 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

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frank scott
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