Spring Break
Discussions on a 'Dream': Panel reviews affirmative action
Megan Henderson
Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: News
|
The new legislation, its language and implications were proposed in a Jan. 23 panel discussion held by The African American Student Union (TAASU).
The discussion, "From Dream to Nightmare: The Co-optation of Civil Rights Language by the Right," featured David Achtenberg, professor of law; Dr. Stephen Dilks, associate professor in English language and literature; and Carol Grimaldi, executive director of the Brush Creek Community Partners.
The proposed legislation, dubbed the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI), "would effectively prohibit state and local governments from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education and public contracting," according to the Web site supporting the initiative, www.missouricri.org.
Achtenberg discussed the beginnings of affirmative action, going back to the 14th Amendment. He also discussed how MoCRI borrowed language from other anti-discrimination legislation.
"The language that they tend to co-opt is language of non-discrimination and language of lack of preferences," Achtenberg said. "But I would suggest that what [MoCRI] does, in fact, is discriminate against a particular form of consideration. It discriminates against recognizing a particular form of disadvantage."
Achtenberg brought the MoCRI Web site up on the overhead projector and pointed to a photo of a Caucasian boy offering an ice cream cone to an African-American girl.
"…[L]ook and think about this image," Achtenberg said. "Ask yourself whether an initiative that says one can never use considerations of race as a way of reaching a better and more just society … whether that is a world we are more likely to reach by forbidding ever considering race, or whether it's one affirmative action helps us approach every day by bringing us together."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 3
Lloyd Hansen
posted 1/29/08 @ 8:23 AM CST
Academics, liberal elites and greedy minority groups can throw around fancy rhetoric all they want but the reality is: granting preference on the basis of race and gender is morally and ethically wrong. (Continued…)
Post a Comment