Editor's corner/Heidi M. Pascual
Over a cup of tea
In defense of Affirmative Action
      When Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz appointed me as a member of the City of Madison Affirmative Action Commission, I took my responsibility to heart. It was an opportunity to be at the table with a diverse group of people whose ideas may shape policies that have great impact on the city's ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged, the underrepresented, women, and the disabled. We're talking here of ensuring the inclusion of the abovementioned groups in areas such as employment (hiring and promotion), public works contracts, and access to various city services. We're talking of keeping best practices and improving on those that fall short of the city's affirmative action goals. I salute the determination and hard work the city -- through the Department of Civil Rights -- does to ensure that all its agencies/offices embrace the spirit of Affirmative Action to the fullest.
      Affirmative Action is a child of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Aimed at redressing past and present discrimination and promoting equal opportunities for protected groups, Affirmative Action has accomplished quite a bit: removing legal barriers that prevented Blacks, other racial groups, women, and the disabled, from entering the workforce and institutions of higher learning; requiring contractors getting federal funds to hire minorities in their projects; and hearing legal grievances from those still getting unequal treatment/discrimination.
      But Affirmative Action has continuously been attacked by those who charge that it gives preferential treatment to people based on their membership in a group, that it violates the principle of equality, that it discriminates against members of one group TODAY to compensate for discrimination against other groups in the PAST (specifically White  men). Anti-Affirmative Action advocates succeeded with California's Proposition 209 (1996); Washington State's Initiative 200 (1998); and Michigan's 2006 ballot/referendum. The debate rages on, with certain U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding its constitutionality but limiting its implementation (
Bakke, 1978; Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education, 1986; Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 1989; Ward's Cove Packing Company v. Antonio, 1989; and Adrand Constructors v. Peņa, 1995).
      In Wisconsin, our state legislature, courtesy of State Senator Glenn Grothman (R), has come up with a Special Committee on Affirmative Action, charged with -- to my mind -- evaluating how our state can copy Michigan that recently abolished its Affirmative Action policy!! (see TCCH Section-J Gramling's article)
      My friends, Affirmative Action is badly needed because it's the only way to ensure that groups traditionally excluded because of discrimination have an equal opportunity to live as true Americans.  Let's join hands to defend it! Our children's future depends on it.
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