Two representatives of the non-profit Political Research Associates outlined the ideological and legal assaults on affirmative action last night at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a talk entitled, “The Right’s Attack on Affirmative Action.”
“The attack on affirmative action has been one of the signature issues the right has used to build itself as a movement,” said Jean Hardisty, the president of the group and author of “Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers.” “It’s a good case study on how the right zeroes in on an issue and develops a campaign to advance its agenda on that issue.”
Hardisty summarized the evolution of affirmative action as a concept, saying it emerged after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a means of integrating segregated industries such as construction. She contrasted the definition of affirmative action then — “admonition of discrimination in hiring” — with what she said is the present definition of affirmative action as quotas.
“Quotas are often used to smear all other forms of affirmative action,” she said. “Actually, quotas are virtually unused at this point.”
She went on to list the arguments against affirmative action: the idea that it leads to internal stigmatization in those who benefit from it; that it stirs up resentment among America’s white population; that it creates a decline in overall university or company standards of admission; and that it is inherently unfair, as discrimination no longer exists. Hardisty refuted the last point and used last year’s presidential election results in Florida, where many minority votes were miscounted or discarded, as evidence of contemporary discrimination.
“It’s hard to argue in light of evidence. Institutional racism is alive and well in this country, not to mention the underlying cultural racism that drives it,” she said.
“All of these oppositions are based on a highly individualistic view of society,” she added. “It’s not that the personal is political; the personal is everything.”
Hardisty also said many organizations dedicated to eliminating affirmative action have co-opted language from the civil rights movement in their names, such as the American Civil Rights Institute and the Center for Equal Opportunity.
Nikhil Aziz, research analyst for Political Research Associates, spoke of the legal institutions attacking affirmative action policies, concentrating on the Center for Individual Rights, a law firm formed in 1988. According to Aziz, the Center, which is funded through individual donations and pro-bono legal counseling, strategically selects a few cases each year which best provide opportunities to advance the firm’s political agenda, which includes the elimination of affirmative action.
About 20 students attended the talk, which was sponsored by the MIT Program in Women’s Studies.
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