~ Passage 5 4i_spF-3
According to a recent publicationof the Equal Employment Opportunity Corrunission, at the present rate of,'progress" it will take forty-three years tO end jobdiscrimination--hardly a reasonable timetable. %uGleY]~
If our goal is educational and economic equity and parity-and it is thenwe need affirmative action.to catch upi We are behihd as a result ofdiscrimination and denial of opportunity. There is one white attorney for every680 wtfites, but only one black attorney for every 4,000 blacks; one whitephysician for every 659 whites, but only one black physician for every 5,000blacks; and one white dentist for every 1,900 whites, but only one blackdentist for every 8,400 blacks. Less th,mi 1 percent of all.engineers or of all practicing chemists--is black.Cruel and uncompassionate injustice created gaps like these. We need cre'ativejustice and compassion to help us close them. KjFZ
Actually, in the U.S.context, "reverse discrimination" is illogical and a conradicfion interms. Never in the history of mankind has a majority, with power, engaged inprograms and written laws that discriminate against itself. The only thingwhites are giving up because of affirmative action is unfair advantage something that was unnecessary in the firstplace. Bmx(qE
Blacks are not making progress at the expense of whites, as newsaccounts make it seem..There are 49 percent more whites in medical school todayand 64 percent more whites in law school than there were when affirmativeaction programs began somein fact, is exactly what has happened in law and medicalschools. In 1968, the year Y|%anTP
before affirmative action programs began toget under way, 9,571 whites and 282members of minority groups entered U.S.medical schools. In 1976, the figures were14,213 and 1,400 respectively. Thus,under affirmative action, the number of "whiteplaces" actually roseby 49 percent: white access to medical training was not diminished,butsubstantially increased. The trend was even more marked in law schools. In1969,the first year for which reliable figures are available, 2,933minority-group memberswere enrolled; in 1976, the number was-up to 8,484. Butduring the same period, lawschool enrollment for whites rosefrom 65,453 to 107,064 an increase of 64 percent. Inshort, it is amyth that blacks are making progress at white expense. 22)0zY%\
Allan Bakke did not really challenge preferential treatment in general,for he madeno challenge:to the preferential treatment accorded to the childrenof the rich, the alumniand the facultv,or to athletes or the very talented onlytominorities. .mvB99P{<
61. The author is for affirmative action &