A new study out of Stanford found that whites are willing to support affirmative action policies as long as they are not harmful to white people. More importantly, it suggests that white people are willing to support policies that help minorities.
The
study debunks the long-held belief that whites simply don’t care about helping blacks and other minorities. They do, they just don’t want to lose anything for that support.
This has important implications for how the civil right community promotes and discusses affirmative action in the 21st century.
Initially, affirmative action was seen as a way to right the wrongs that a segregated America perpetuated on blacks. Then in the 80’s and 90’s, affirmative action was talked of as a tool for fostering diversity, which benefits everyone.
But lately, we’ve been unsuccessful in making the case for affirmative action.
Opponents of affirmative action have managed to twist the affirmative action argument into something that disenfranchises whites.
They package their stance in simple messages that play to white people’s fears that they are losing something when affirmative action goes into effect.
The progressive community knows this is not the case, but we haven’t done the best job in marketing the benefits and the advantages to the whole society of a diverse society. That also means that whites have had the opportunity to support affirmative action taken away from them, a loss to the general society.
The Stanford study makes the important point that the impulse to support policies that benefit minorities exists. We just have to reframe the issue in ways that emphasize that whites don’t lose anything in the process.
In fact, support of affirmative action not only returns it to its original purpose – to help historically disadvantaged minorities – that support makes it better for every citizen across the nation.