Timetables are like statistics; they are useful when they prove your point. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 included President Johnson’s Executive Order number 11246 and along with the Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, began the era of Affirmative Action. The late Justice, Antonin Scalia and current Chief Justice, John Roberts Jr., thought and think the act has outlived its usefulness and it is time to move on. The idea of AA was to level the playing field in everything from educational opportunity to job hiring and housing discrimination. The Conservative’s theory is that enough time has passed and merit should be the only qualifier. That would be fine if it were true in most instances but honestly, it is not.
President Barack Obama, arrived in Cuba yesterday to symbolically support an order to re-open relations with Cuba he restored in December of 2014. On cue, the Republicans castigated the President’s visit as appeasement, ignoring of human rights and legitimizing a dictatorship. Three years prior to the beginning of Affirmative Action, diplomatic ties with Cuba were cut by President, Dwight Eisenhower. At what point is a policy, meant to choke off both Cuban economic and world relations, deemed a failure, and a new course charted. The one common denominator is both groups are people of color and figuratively and literally foreign. Why the assuredness that Affirmative Action has run its course and the failures the Republicans say it has wrought, does not apply to Cuba?
Could it be the need for a new economic market is driving it all, or could it be the simpler answer, the President is right, “the policy we’ve had in place for 50 years hasn’t worked the way we wanted it to, the Cuban people are not free.” Silent, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as much as he hates to admit it, is a product of Affirmative Action. One of the great myths about Affirmative Action, is that it’s a pacifier for less qualified people of color. Today, President Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 biggest benefactor is, White women. One example, according to the New York Times, is IBM which has tripled the number of women in management in less than a decade. All a result of AA. Maybe the party that has voted repeatedly against equal pay for women, immigration reform and housing and employment fairness is just afraid. The world is changing around the stereotypical white-working class and fear is a great motivator. I for one, am willing to see if an affirmative approach to Cuba may reap benefits. Maybe just maybe, Affirmative Action, has leveled that playing field just a bit too much for the liking of some.