OPINION:
The dream of an America where all men and women were considered equal under the law has always been an unfinished masterpiece. It’s been a messy experiment in human spiritual growth, punctuated by war, protest and upheaval. With the rise of the welfare state and the introduction of affirmative action, we moved from a nation that ended racial segregation to one with distinct programs and preferences that again set Blacks and other minorities apart from the rest of America.
It was an artificial type of equality that was unnatural, and naturally, it didn’t really work.
The forthcoming Supreme Court decision in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill case could put us back on track to a more colorblind society. It could perhaps be an even more consequential decision than the Dobbs ruling last year, by striking at the heart of the left’s agenda to view Americans as camps or tribes, never quite united, never quite equal, and victimizing one another in perpetuity.
The radical left has seen the possibility of this legal shift coming. Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, critical race theory, transgender cultism and reparations movements are all connected to fortifying their basic strategy for remaking American society.
The Supreme Court that righted the wrongs of Roe v. Wade can do it again by acknowledging affirmative action as reverse discrimination that is ultimately damaging to the goal of equality.
After the success of the Civil Rights Movement, what started as a way to ensure that employers and other institutions recognized the importance of diversity has become warped into a form of legalized prejudice.
While many have argued that President Lyndon Johnson created the so-called Great Society programs as a means to buy off minorities for the benefit of the Democratic Party, few then likely saw affirmative action being perverted into today’s militant diversity movements dominating academia, corporations, government and the media.
Mandating “diversity” and “equity” can be dangerous because they are deliberately nebulous. Does a company achieve diversity goals by mirroring the racial makeup of its local area? Is a sufficiently diverse student body reflective of the population at large? If Black Americans make up 13% of the population, does that mean that an employer with 13% Black employees is sufficiently inclusive? Why is inclusivity important in schools and companies but not in professional sports?
No one can answer any of these questions. That’s why affirmative action and its progeny are inherently discriminatory and violate both the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.
On the left-wing talk show “The View,” GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott, who represents South Carolina in the Senate, told the notoriously angry birds that it was “disgusting and offensive” to send a message to minority children that the only way to make it in America is to be “the exception.”
He’s right.
Affirmative action has helped fuel the notion that Americans cannot rise above the kind of racism that existed decades and centuries past. It is perhaps the most pessimistic of policies promulgated by what used to be an optimistic country.
Democrats need affirmative action, DEI, critical race theory and intersectionality to be a crutch for liberal policies that have failed to support economic and social mobility for minorities. They’re fine with perpetuating the placing of race above the personal circumstances of each individual.
By any objective measure, more than 50 years of welfare policy have failed to help generate markedly better outcomes for Blacks and other minorities. Public education has failed them as well.
Racial preferences have also created an inertia in society to expect less from certain people. When we do that, we all lose.
It perpetuates a victimhood culture that is depressing minority achievement and fueling resentment among those who are discriminated against by the policy.
The left is fine with all these negative impacts on society.
As with the Dobbs decision, Democrats will leverage any ruling against affirmative action to drive out voters in 2024. Instead of embracing colorblindness, valuing the content of character, and addressing the real reasons for achievement gaps, they’ll stoke more division.
The high court can get us back to the hard work of finishing our Founders’ masterpiece, but don’t expect Democrats and leftists to be happy about it.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax and the author of “Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq.” He served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 2003 to 2004.
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