I listen to a lot of political podcasts; politics is my sports league, my hobby, my passion and my love among numerous other loves (I’m not a complete freak). Of the pods I like to follow, I listen to two that feature Republican and Conservative political pundits, as well as former GOP pundits, those who left the party – and good for them – due to the rise of Orange Nero. I do this because, while I cannot make myself listen to pro-Dumpster Fire ‘news’ or pods, I want to get a bead on what the other side is thinking, because bottom line they are at heart, bone marrow deep, still Republicans, like my brother who also left the GOP when Orange Aspic became the nominee. The GOP is forever my brother’s – and these pundits, chosen tribe, their team, their philosophical soul-match, and they all wait with bated breath for the team to come to its collective senses. Good luck with that, bro.
One of the pundits I like to follow specializes in running focus groups of different types of registered voters (Blue, Red, & unaffiliated) all over the country, and I am very interested in those conversations, as talking to actual voters, relying on first person accounts, really matters – especially given our divided electorate and the spread of mis-and mis-information, including by professional spinners of political nonsense. And, during one pod posted shortly after after the Supreme Court made its expected but still horrible decision striking down the use of race, a.k.a. affirmative action, in college admissions, this person used the following phrase, which raised my hackles, ‘the soft racism of lowered expectations’; she was, with those words, describing as ‘soft racism’ the program, the philosophy, the legal and administrative structure of Affirmative Action. First of all, there is no fucking thing as soft racism. Racism is racism, and it is evil, vile, stupid, wrong, not soft or friendly. This reminded me of a back and forth between my Tennessee born and bred cousin wherein he statted that his dad wasn’t ‘a mean racist’. There is no such thing, cuz. No. Such. Thing.
Conservatives, like this focus group running chick, have been very adept at finding language to re-frame their actual racism, like putting a soft-focus lens on a camera to make the old guy coming soon to a screen near you look forty(ish) again. Am I 99.9% sure she’s a racist who doesn’t think she’s a racist? Yes, yes I am. Racism is baked into the system, baked into all of us from childhood, and she is a well-off white woman who has benefitted from that system; she grew up in central Pennsylvania, went to college in central Ohio, and has been, her entire life, surrounded by a majority of white people, all within a system that was built by and continues to preference white people, a system that includes her work in coded racist GOP politics over the last twenty-five years. So yes, yes, I’m sure.
Affirmative action was not instituted, codified, or created in any way, shape, or form because of or in reaction to lowered expectations for people of color, although racists sure do think POC are less capable and intelligent, among other outrages (unless you’re Obama, in which case you’re demonstrably smart but unfit because ‘born in Kenya’). Affirmative action was established as a potential and partial fix, a step in the right direction taken in reaction to the reality of racism, a reality that, until the late sixties, seventies and even the eighties, meant that most colleges and universities actively rejected applications from students of color, however qualified they might have been. Sure, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and other top institutions admitted at least ‘a’ black man, possibly even a handful, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but I doubt even this ‘soft-racism’ promoting former GOP operative would say three admissions per decade – or less – had an outsized (if any) impact on the trajectory of an entire class of persons who were in fact being actively excluded and discriminated against as a matter of accepted policy. Ditto the admission of women.
Affirmative action was a remedy in part, a single small step, an imperfect policy like the system that created a need for it, and was applied (and is to this day) to the hiring of federal contractors, the awarding of federal contracts, in employment wherever federal funds are involved, and more, yet affirmative action is more visible, and vulnerable, as a piece of the college application process. Established initially by JFK in 1961 because the system overwhelmingly favored white employees, contractors and etc. and, at the college level, favored white students, especially wealthy students and legacy admissions (and FFS people, they still do!), affirmative action was a positive way to address exclusion, i.e. you shall use the race of applicants as one of several or many qualities that are a plus toward admission; race will be an added reason to consider acceptance, a flag in a positive sense on an applicant’s file, in the same way a red negative flag excluded even the brightest students of color simply for their race, zip code, and other nonsensical information having nothing to do with excellence, potential, or expectation, either low or high.
And why should affirmative action – race as a series of positively considered qualities in an application process – continue? Because even if accepted by the institutions of higher ed., barriers to attendance exist that cannot be addressed via policy or the law: hidden biases, a lack of tutoring in the application or college selection process, the challenge of distance and travel costs, lack of family support, being the first generation to go to college, as well as – among still other challenges – students and families lacking the sophistication needed to navigate the financial aid nightmare that is modern college admissions. There is a reason Felicity Huffman and other rich celebs cheated to get their not-so gifted kids into top tier schools, just as there is a reason she and others were given a wrist slap as punishment for same. Privilege protects privilege, like prefers like, and in a system that is to this day overwhelmingly staffed, administered, and led by white men, affirmative action still has an important role to play.
Soft racism my cottage cheese ass. Actually, that’s a terrible phrase to use; my cottage cheese ass exists, soft racism does not. Racism is racism is racism, even if you’re smiling while in the act of, Ms. Sarah.