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Jeff Raikes, of the Raikes Foundation, recently published an article in which he stated that ‘ending affirmative action would be a terrible mistake’, then went on to outline reasons he believes why this would be.

It is important to establish the premise, before we continue, that affirmative action is racist. This is easy to establish based on the definition of racism:

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

Positive discrimination is discrimination nonetheless. Artificially adjusting a person’s test scores, or giving precedence to a person’s job application (discrimination), on the basis of the membership of the person in question in a particular racial or ethnic group, is definitively a racist act.

Now that we are all in agreement that affirmative action is racism in action, let’s examine some of the points made.

‘Ending affirmative action at this moment would be, in a word, un-American,’ Mr. Raikes writes. This, I agree with. America does have a long and storied history of engaging in racist practices, not to do so could aptly be described as un-American.

‘Affirmative action policies don’t just benefit minorities, they benefit everyone,’ Mr. Raikes goes on to write. Everyone, of course, except for the candidates for positions that are overlooked on the basis of being the undesired race for the position.

‘In short, racism continues to be a structural problem in America – afflicting many of our core institutions – so it requires structural solutions,’ Mr. Raikes writes. In order to eradicate the structural problem of racism, the implication goes, they need to implement the structural solution of racism. Much like fighting fire with fire, presumably – only that the perpetuation of racist policy does not prevent further racism, it simply adds further racism. It is less like fighting fire with fire, and more like fighting spilt milk with spilt milk.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, I have heard, and you could be forgiven for thinking that the intentions are good. What are you actually saying when you promote affirmative action, though?

‘We have inflated your test scores to be more in line with your peers, based on the colour of your skin, because we don’t expect you are intelligent enough to match them on your own.‘

‘We prioritised your job application, based on the colour of your skin, because we don’t expect you are able to demonstrate you are the most suitable candidate for the job based on merit.‘

The proponents of affirmative action are condescending to the groups of which they are affirmatively acting on behalf, implicitly demonstrating that they see them as being of lesser intelligence, skill, talent, or worth. Most often, the value they are being told that they do have is that of being a poster child for their affirmative actors’ benevolence. They smugly use minority groups as pawns for their own virtue signalling, and the positions and posts they are arbitrarily given without merit are their bribes to go along with the charade.

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