THE NATION'S LARGEST AFRICAN AMERICAN ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE
July 6, 2018 - Vol. 1, Issue 40
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Readdressing Affirmative Action
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In his interview with The HistoryMakers, the late public affairs, history and African American studies professor
Manning Marable
defined affirmative action as
“an approach to compensatory justice,”
and as a policy created
“to redress the discrimination that occurs”
from
“racialized discrimination
."
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Marable went on to explain the history of the term, including the state’s
“obligation to intercede and to create avenues of opportunities for those who merit--and the emphasis on merit--jobs and advancement
.
”
Economics professor Deepak Nayyar compared the social and political conditions of the U.S., India and South Africa. His definition of affirmative action aligned with Marable’s, as Nayyar wrote: “In situations where discrimination and exclusion has a history, affirmative action, or positive discrimination, in favor of the underprivileged, or the excluded, is necessary as a corrective to compensate for embedded discrimination.”
3
On Tuesday,
4
the U.S. departments of justice and education rescinded the “Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race to Achieve Diversity in Postsecondary Education”--documentation developed under
President Barack Obama
that delineated the process for implementing university-level diversity initiatives.
5
The guidance also referenced the 2003 Supreme Court decisions of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, which provide the current legal framework for affirmative action policies at American universities.
Academic administrator
Earl Lewis
in his interview spoke about his involvement in the two cases, as well as their importance for the future of higher education:
“The Michigan case did something that we haven’t seen since Brown, which is to mobilize the academic community to work in a cross-disciplinary way to show the place of race in American life and society
.
”
6
Civil rights attorney
Elaine Jones
, who through her leadership in the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund was at the forefront of the Gratz case,
concurred with Lewis’ assessment:
“If we had lost those cases, it would have affected us across the board…You know how people do in practice: we would have had it seeping over into the business community and into employment…Right now we’re still struggling for diversity, but that would have really been a hit--‘cause people do take bad news and expand it beyond where it ought to go.”
7
Charles D. Moody, Sr.
founded the National Alliance of Black School Educators, and served as the vice provost of minority affairs at the University of Michigan. In his 2004 interview, he shared his thoughts on the terms affirmative action, reverse discrimination and diversity:
“There’s a difference between affirmative action and acting affirmatively…I used to ask my kids, ‘When you hear the word affirmative action, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?’ ‘Lowering the standards, unqualified blacks taking the place of more qualified whites’--a whole litany of stuff…I say, “Now when you say reverse discrimination, you must mean that it was some discrimination before, right, to reverse it?” …When you start talking about this affirmative action, see, they didn’t count any notion about overcoming past discrimination and segregation. They wanted what? Diversity--that neutral term that allows you not to have to talk about your past discrimination and segregation.”
8
Opponents to social policies like affirmative action include the conservative author
Shelby Steele
, whose 1990 essay collection
The Content of Our Character
challenged the justifiability of such policies. When asked about the impetus for his writing, Steele maintained of racial progress:
“It became clear to me that it wasn’t about racism anymore. It was really about know-how--it was about having the tools, the ideas, and that the real price we had paid for our four centuries of oppression was that we didn’t have those ideas nurtured and central in our culture so that we could depend on them when opportunity opened up.”
9
Although the Trump administration’s recent action does not directly impact the Supreme Court decisions, it marks a return to the 2008 guidance issued under President George W. Bush, where colleges were effectively discouraged from considering race in admissions.
10
The affirmative action debate, then, of course, persists: how will our institutions respond?
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An Afternoon With Julieanna Richardson
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Tomorrow, July 7th from 2 to 4 p.m., The HistoryMakers founder and executive director Julieanna Richardson will speak at St. Mark's Place in Middle LaHave, Nova Scotia.
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Tickets: $20.00 at the door
For more information contact Patricia Watson: 902-766-4511
Website: https://stmarksplace.net
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QUOTES FROM THE ARCHIVE:
Philando Castile and the Tragedy of Justice
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On this day two years ago, Philando Castile, a thirty-two year old nutrition services supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School, was shot by a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer. His death grew the number of African Americans killed by law enforcement in recent decades; and the subsequent acquittal of the officer who was responsible for Castile's death further exacerbated sentiments of injustice.
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In his interview with The HistoryMakers in 2016, gospel singer and pastor
Donnie McClurkin
spoke about the recent killings of African Americans--of Castile and others, like Eric Garner, Sandra Bland and Alton Sterling--and struggled to make sense of the nation's response:
"We're sitting back and we're seeing all of these things and we're not doing anything about them. This nation has never been godly. So, when you ask, what do you tell the young black men--I gotta pray about it so I don't say the wrong thing. I gotta pray about that so I don't speak out of my anger and disappointment. I gotta pray about it so that I don't speak out of my hurt by seeing young men, the young men for the last five years gunned down in the street and the only reason why we're seeing it now is because we have something that we didn't have twenty years ago: a camera in our phones."
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Please share with us your stories of how you incorporate The HistoryMakers Digital Archive into your curriculum and research. We'd love to hear from you!
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Stay tuned for more content on The HistoryMakers Digital Archive later this summer, when we resume publication of new interviews.
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1. BANNER PHOTO: Photograph of signs advocating for affirmative action, taken by Mark Wilson/Getty Images News/Getty Images. Accessed June 29, 2018.
2. Manning Marable (The HistoryMakers A2005.228), interviewed by Shawn Wilson, October 5, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 7, story 10, Manning Marable talks about affirmative action policy.
3. Deepak Nayyar, “Discrimination and Justice: Beyond Affirmative Action,”
Economic and Political Weekly
46, no. 42 (October 2011): 54.
4. Erica L. Green, Matt Apuzzo and Katie Benner, "Trump Officials Reverse Obama's Policy on Affirmative Action in Schools." The New York Times, July 3, 2018. Accessed July 6, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-race-schools.html.
5. Office for Civil Rights, “Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race to Achieve Diversity in Postsecondary Education.” Accessed July 6, 2018. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/guidance-pse-201111.html.
6. Earl Lewis (The HistoryMakers A2013.255), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, October 18, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 7, story 3, Earl Lewis talks about the importance of the University of Michigan's affirmative action cases.
7. Elaine Jones (The HistoryMakers A2006.151), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, March 6, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 10, story 12, Elaine Jones describes the case of Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003.
8. Charles D. Moody, Sr. (The HistoryMakers A2004.190), interviewed by Larry Crowe, October 1, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 5, Charles D. Moody, Sr. shares his thoughts on affirmative action.
9. Shelby Steele (The HistoryMakers A2002.046), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, March 30, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 6, Shelby Steele describes factors that influenced his book "The Content of Our Character."
10. Scott Jaschik, “Guidance or Spin on Affirmative Action Rulings?” Inside Higher Ed. September 19, 2008. Accessed July 6, 2018. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/19/guidance-or-spin-affirmative-action-rulings.
11. PHOTO: Photograph of St. Mark's Place in Middle LaHave, Nova Scotia. Accessed July 6, 2018. https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/st-marks-middle-lahave-nova-scotia/2637838/?p.
12. PHOTO: Photograph of Philando Castile's memorial in Falcon Heights, Minnesota taken by Aaron Lavin of the Star Tribune. Accessed July 6, 2018. http://stmedia.stimg.co/ows_147248570488545.jpg?w=525
13. Donnie McClurkin (The HistoryMakers A2016.068), interviewed by Harriette Cole, October 8, 2016, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 13, story 7, Donnie McClurkin reflects upon the recent police shootings.
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