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How do you think MLK would feel about today's affirmative action?

With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday coming up, how do you think he would feel about today’s affirmative action policies, and the overall state of black America?

A lot of revision has been done on King in his lifetime and after. But there is one quote of his about such AA type policies. He said, “A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro”. King also compared affirmative action-type policies to the GI Bill, saying that both are designed to offer compensatory aid. Good point…

I don’t think I am opposed to affirmative action as a concept. The fact is, discrimination still does exist in hiring practices, social services, the legal system, and various other places. But what about the resentment against minorities that some AA policies breed, or the cases where the less qualified minority was hired, or accusations that it ends up hurting poorer white people in order to help middle class minorities?

I don’t think King would support that kind of affirmative action…in other words, I don’t think he would support “racial preference”. I think he would support affirmative action that ends a discriminatory practice only. Any thoughts?

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Answer #1

A good question and I think you’ve summarised my answer fairly well. I can’t answer what Martin Luther King would have thought, but I would say that employers should seek out people from different groups (gender, race, whatever) when they look to fill a job, to ensure that they are not being unfair. But then, at the interview stage, the job should go to the best candidate. If two candidates are equal but one is from an under-represented group (e.g. a man in primary school teaching), then that’s a good reason to choose the ‘minority’ candidate.

My opinion may be different when it comes to education. If certain groups are being poorly educated then there will never be a ‘level playing field’ when it comes to choosing the best candidate for a job. So in order to ensure that good students from disadvantaged backgrounds fulfil their potential, some kind of ‘positive discrimination’ could be necessary until we can get to a stage when all schools offer a quality education.

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