Headline: THOSE
WHO SEEK PATH OF EQUALITY STILL NEED HELP
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman
Publication: ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Dec. 8, 1991
Section: NEWS, Page: 4B, Edition: LATE FIVE STAR
My FIRST JOB at
a daily newspaper was at a small paper in Michigan that hired an entire new
staff in the 1970s.
Some
of those hired were, like me, fresh out of college. Some had worked for one
other newspaper. Most of us were pretty green. The last five people hired for
the staff were black. All of us, of course, were happy to have reporting jobs.
None
of us gave it any thought at that time. But when it became apparent that one
of the black reporters wasn't a very good writer, some of us began to wonder.
Why would the paper hire someone who obviously didn't know even the basics of
newspaper writing? We began to feel sorry for him, and some of us tried to take
him under our wings.
But
he soon realized that he wasn't cut out to be a journalist and eventually took
a job unrelated to journalism.
His hiring, though,
made the rest of us who were black reporters wonder about ourselves. We had,
after all, been hired at one time, almost as a bloc. Had all of our hirings
been because of an affirmative action policy and not because of our own talents?
I had had confidence in my own abilities, having been a reporter and editor
for Washington University's student newspaper for four years, and having had
an internship at the Washington Star and reporting experience with the St. Louis
American under my belt. But, like the other black journalists at the paper,
I began to have doubts as well.
I've
since overcome such doubts, although some blacks are haunted by them years later,
despite the fact they've proven themselves in a professional setting. It is,
I suppose, one of the down sides of affirmative action.
Affirmative action, school desegregation programs, race-based scholarships - all are under attack these days by people who think that the nation has done enough to help its minorities. In addition to suggesting that such programs are a waste, some of those critics argue that such programs don't really help the minorities who participate or that they make them feel inferior to their white peers.
Affirmative action
programs - set up about 25 years ago - were designed to give minorities a chance
in places where they had not been given one, presumably because of race. They've
been expanded over the years to include sex and other factors.
The
programs have worked, at least to a limited degree. Affirmative action programs
opened the doors for many minorities, where the doors would not have opened
otherwise.
But
they haven't worked nearly as well as they were designed to work. While there
are more minorities working in the mainstream today than may have been the case
in 1965, the numbers are hardly representative of the population.
My
own business is a prime example. While ethnic minorities today make up as much
as 20 percent of the population, they make up 8.5 percent of those working for
daily newspapers, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which
conducts annual surveys. That includes blacks, Asians, Native Americans and
Hispanics.
The reason given
for most school desegregation programs is that black schools and white schools
in past years did not receive equal amounts of funding for books, supplies and
other materials. The result has been school busing, a concept disliked by many
blacks and whites.
But
the concept is accepted by many blacks because they see it as a way to see to
it that their youngsters get equitable education. Many of those parents would
prefer to send their students to school in their own neighborhoods. But because
the schools in their neighborhoods often are not as good as the ones their youngsters
are bused to, the parents tolerate busing.
And
maybe busing helps foster racial understanding, although that's not its purpose.
As for the issue
of race-based scholarships, colleges and universities did not set them up to
discriminate against anyone. They are not there to keep anyone out of college.
They're there to help people get in who otherwise might not have that opportunity.
Colleges
make decisions on who gets in and who doesn't using a variety of criteria. Ethnic
diversity is certainly involved in those decisions.
But so are geographic diversity, diversity of rural and urban students
and many other areas. And, as anyone who has ever gone on a scholarship search
knows, there are scholarships for all kinds of people of various backgrounds.
There are even scholarships for those who are left-handed.
The bottom line?
It's too bad that we have to have programs like affirmative action, school desegregation
programs and race-based scholarships. But I submit that while none of these
programs has been as successful as may have once been hoped, all have been starts
down the path of equality.
None
of these should be looked upon as permanent solutions. We would all be better
served without them. But our nation is not ready to simply do away with them
all. No one can factually argue that businesses are now thoroughly integrated,
that schools in black neighborhoods now receive the same amount of funding as
schools in white neighborhoods, that most colleges and universities now have
equitable numbers of minorities among their faculty and student populations.
Until
those arguments can be factually supported - or until better programs are developed
- America is stuck with some imperfect solutions.
COPYRIGHT ©
1991, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
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