[April 24, 2014] Racial discrimination is legal and officially sanctioned at the highest levels of leadership in the United States government (discrimination in universities anyway). While this could be a shock to many, it should be surprising that there is also strong resistance to eliminating those legal racial barriers. Does this sound like the 1960s, pre-Civil Rights era?
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision upheld a Michigan law banning racial discrimination. It seems to defy logic that people in the U.S. are still fighting hard to eliminate racial discrimination in the 21st Century.
Two Supreme Court justices who voted for and argued vigorously to continue discrimination, did so based on the argument that keeping official racial discrimination helps keep “diversity in institutions of higher education … and people do not know the logic of minority processes.” And, the U.S. Attorney General on Wednesday praised their vote in support of racial discrimination1. Logic can be used to justify just about anything and this vote will be constructed in the language of affirmative action.
It is incumbent, however, as true leaders to resist wrongs – racial discrimination is ethically wrong, period. Senior executive leaders who support such discrimination should be called out for what they are.
By supporting racial discrimination, those leaders continue to divide us and place themselves on the wrong side of morality and history. The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race … oh, somebody already said that2.
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[2] http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sonia-sotomayor-john-roberts-race-affirmative-action