As a Black man who is opposed to Affirmative Action because it is clearly a strategic mistake - I am emboldened when one of such mistakes comes to light.
The original plan for AA was to "break victims" off some of the "White man's cheddar". As such racial minorities and women were selected as the groups qualified to receive the benefits of Affirmative Action contracting programs.
I have previously pointed out that in Atlanta during the Mayor Bill Campbell regime there were lawsuits filed by Black contractors who complained that the mayor had his own set of "favored Black firms" to provide AA contracts to. Thus these out of favor Black firms were shut out from doing business. Many of the White firms said "Welcome to the club, now you know how we feel".
With Hispanics deemed a minority group "the Blacks" in Orlando are complaining that they are getting too many of the set aside contracts, leaving Black firms and workers shut out.
What the NAACP NEEDS TO DO is to revisit the entire strategy all together. Instead of depending on "racial victimhood" as a means of receiving benefit - they need to focus instead upon either breaking large contracts up or having some other means by which more firms and thus more people can participate in providing services to the arena.
Local NAACP leaders today accused the Orlando Magic and city officials of breaking a promise to make sure the team's new arena would help the black community.
Rev. Randolph Bracy, president of the Orange County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said blacks are losing jobs and contracts to Hispanics.
"For every one African American worker on the jobsite, there were at least 10 Hispanics to match," Bracy said at a news conference held in front of the arena construction site in the impoverished Parramore community.
The city's venues plan requires that 18 percent of the contracts go to minority-owned companies, and another 6 percent go to companies owned by women. That same goals are in place when it comes to hiring workers. The plan was meant to ensure the project was an economic boon for the predominantly black Parramore community where it's being built.
2 comments:
The original plan for AA was to "break victims" off some of the "White man's cheddar".
That is the most perfect definition of Affirmative Action I've heard to date.
My friend Ed - Affirmative Action was a thoughtful strategy in a "binary world" of Black and White.
Once "females" were thrown in - all bets were off.
Now that there is the Hispanic as yet another variable - the results seen in Orlando are only the start of the display of the clear flaws of AA as a strategy.
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