This may be true in that people always have an internal bias in them, about different things. But what becomes the best corrector against race-based hiring is that not having the best employees for a job will cut into profit margins and cause employers to gladly hire African-Americans if they are most qualified for a position. The alternative is to go out of business. What the authors also do not realize is that the market forces are the best forces to ensure equity and employment and not outside artificial interference. The next paragraph will show this.
One of the difficulties in arguing against affirmative action is that any such analysis comes across as racist. But one of the best examples of why affirmative action should be eschewed is professional sports in the United States, where African-Americans have financially benefited in ways that even the wealthiest whites cannot even imagine. Before the civil rights movement, blacks athletes, who were more talented and had a natural instinct for these sports were deliberately kept out of these leagues by racist policies. Sports suffered as a result. But post-segregation, the best at the sports got a chance to play it, spectatorship increased and African-Americans athletes made more money. Affirmative action wasn't and isn't needed because the best play at these sports having undergone a rigorous vetting process that starts at little league, high school and college.
Profit making is critical for any capitalistic economy, which is the best type there is. What proves beneficial to people is competition, and not governmental regulations. What none of the writers of the papers, or for his perfect intentions, Professor Darity, seem to touch on is that African-Americans in this country (of course there are many, many noted exceptions) in general have a poor history of educating them selves, and not taking advantage of educational opportunities that are available through free public schooling. What Stephen Steinberg, himself a Jew (as his last name indicates) does not realize that for Jewish, education is equated with religion. This enables the Jewish to hold jobs that require a higher education, which is the direct line to acquiring wealth....
The African-American Leadership in this country, or at least in the last few decades, has been uninspiring. Many African-American success stories decry affirmative action. They believe that through hard work, dedication and talent parity is possible -- their biographies are available for those interested. (Williams 2008; Sowell 2008)
With the current economies becoming more global and with manufacturing and mundane jobs being outsourced, the American economy is going to be more and more geared towards the intellectual. If African-American communities do not in large numbers focus on career-based education, as Dr. Bill Cosby suggested, then the gaps will be even larger. If they focus on merely being accepted through affirmative actions projects and not based on competition and meritocracy, it will serve to distance them and other minorities from mainstream America, making the stance of Stephen Steinberg and his ilk even more ineffectual and impotent.
Bibliography
Badgett, Mary Virginia Lee, et al. "The Economic Cost of Affirmative Action." Economic Perspectives on Affirmative Action. Eds. Mary Virginia Lee Badgett and Margaret C. Simms. Washington, DC
Lanham, MD: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies;
Distributed by University Press of America, 1995. x, 97
Cornell. Grutter V. Bollinger Et Al. 2003. Cornell University Law School. Available:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-241.ZS.html. April21 2008.
Darity, William Jr. The State of Black America 1999: National Urban League, 1999.
Sowell, Thomas. Thomas Sowell. 2008. Available:
http://www.tsowell.com/.April21 2008.
Steinberg, Stephen. "Nathan Glazer and the Assassination of Affirmative Action." New Politics 9.3 (2003).
Occupational Apartheid: Race, Labor Market Segmentation, and Affirmative Action." Without Justice for All: The New Liberalism and Our Retreat from Racial Equality. Ed. Adolph L. Reed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999. 215-33.
Williams, Walter E. Walter E. Williams. 2008. Available:
http://www.answers.com/topic/walter-e-williams.April20 2008.
