Headline: AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION HELPED START MY CAREER - AND THAT PUTS ME IN GOOD COMPANY
Reporter: By Greg Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Dec. 8, 2002
Section: METRO, Page: C3, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT
Let me say it
upfront. I am a proud affirmative action baby.
My
very first job at a daily newspaper was the result of affirmative action. These
days, some think that women, blacks and others who have benefited from this
approach should somehow be embarrassed.
Hardly.
I've got nothing to be ashamed about.
I
was hired at a newspaper that had never had any black reporters. Suddenly, it
hired seven new reporters and, not coincidentally, all of us were black. Being
black helped me get in the door - a door that I might otherwise not have been
able to enter.
And
it's not as if I wasn't ready to work there. I joined the paper, in Pontiac,
Mich., after graduating from Washington University. I had spent four years working
for the school paper, Student Life, and had served as co-editor of the paper
for one of those years. I had freelanced for various weekly and monthly publications.
During my senior year, I had managed to keep my grades up, even while working
30 hours a week as a reporter and editor at the St. Louis American. I had even
landed a summer internship with the Washington Star, then the competitor to
the Washington Post.
Still, had it
not been for affirmative action, I may never have landed a job at that paper
in Michigan. Surely the seven black reporters who were hired within weeks of
one another weren't God's gifts to journalism. We were young reporters hungry
for a break. And affirmative action gave us one.
Affirmative
action got me in the door. But just as quickly as I was in, I would have been
out had I not been able to do the job.
Countless
African-Americans before me had tried but failed, not only in Pontiac but in
other cities as well.
Though affirmative
action helped me, an African-American, it's impossible to discuss it without
mentioning women, who have benefited from it far more than blacks.
Indeed,
affirmative action completely changed the environment in offices all across
the country. There was a time when the only women seen in offices were secretaries.
Despite the changing
of the times, it would be foolish to believe racism and sexism have completely
vanished. It would be as if a small town got rid of its police department because
it had experienced no major crimes of any sort in a year or two. Doing so, in
the words of former President George Bush, "wouldn't be prudent."
Just
this year, a study at Rutgers School of Law found that while employment opportunities
for women and minorities have improved over the last 25 years, discrimination
remains a serious problem.
The
study looked at employment data that had been collected by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission on about 200,000 companies from 1990 through 1999. The
study found that women could expect to be discriminated against about 23 percent
of the time they sought work, while minorities faced the same risk about 30
percent of the time. Affirmative action and enforcement efforts should continue,
the study concluded.
Chicago Tribune
columnist Clarence Page likes to talk about an interview he did several years
back with Clifford Alexander. Alexander, the first black secretary of the Army,
was appointed by President Jimmy Carter. Alexander told Page that he was dissatisfied
that the first list he received of colonels who were candidates for promotion
to general included no women or nonwhites. Alexander sent the list back and
asked for it to be expanded, with an eye out for including a more diverse pool
of applicants.
One
of the colonels on the new expanded list was Colin Powell, now secretary of
state.
The
story is significant because so many think of Powell as someone who never needed
affirmative action. But in Powell's case, as in that of countless others, affirmative
action didn't necessarily mean a lowering of standards or of double standards.
Instead, it meant looking beyond the usual pool of candidates for various positions.
The Army, in fact,
is probably a great place to look when trying to determine how affirmative action
can be handled fairly. The Army has no fixed quotas, nor does it have any timetables
for achieving its goal of a diverse Army leadership.
Instead, in its promotion policy it says that questions of race,
gender and prejudice may be taken into account, but that they should not be
the main criteria. In other words, it shouldn't discriminate against white men
but also should give a fair shake to nonwhites and women.
That
is the best kind of affirmative action.
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2002, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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