Posted on 06/25/2003 12:26:37 PM PDT by redangus
A Modest Proposal
Now that the Supreme Court has handed down its Solomanic decision on Affirmative Action in higher education the country finds itself faced with a new dilemma. How do we determine who is to benefit? By that I mean how do we determine who is Black, Hispanic or Native American? Do we return to the days of Jim Crow and the one-drop of Black and by extension Hispanic and Native American blood makes you eligible? If that is the case then laws like the former Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which stated “every person in whom there is ascertainable any Negro blood shall be deemed and taken to be a colored person”, would seem to be a good guide. Does having a Hispanic surname automatically qualify you for special treatment? What about people who appear to be white, but claim they have a distant Black, Hispanic or Native American ancestor? When the Nazi were trying to enforce the Nuremberg Laws against their Jewish population it became almost mandatory for people to have extensive family trees researched to prove their purity. If we were to take that route as a means to qualify for the benefits of the Supreme Court ruling then I see big days ahead for Genealogy Dot.com and other similar online services.
I personally have a modest, but I believe common sense proposal to help everyone deal with this problem. I think we should dole out the benefits based on the percentage of minority blood you can prove you have. In the past there were very specific terms used to define the various mixes. I propose we resurrect these terms so admissions officers will have a guideline to hand out the affirmative action program points. These are old terms, but they fit well into today world of racial preferences. As an example let’s use a 20-point system similar to that in use at the University of Michigan. Under such a program a mulatto, the offspring of one black or minority parent without white ancestry and one white parent with no black or minority ancestry would be allotted 10 points. A quadroon, a person one-quarter black or minority, would get 5 points, and an octoroon, a person with one black or minority great-grandparent, the child of a quadroon and a white, would get 2.5 points, and so on down the line. Of course those individuals who could prove their racial purity would get the whole 20 points and those unfortunate enough to be truly white and interestingly enough Asian would get nothing.
I know that some may find these archaic terms to be offensive, but if we are going to divide our country along racial lines then we must have proper terms by which to define those divisions. These terms served the country well during the days of Jim Crow, I am sure they will serve us just as well during our present time of racial division.
They would have to revert to deciding based on the experience and merit of all of the black applicants as opposed to any racial considerations.
Perhaps not workable, but just an idea to throw out there.
Then to demonstrate his eligibility for diversity bonus money or benefits, an applicant would just go to the government diversity administer and ask him to "Pull my finger!"
I have no idea how that case was resolved.
Ditto the cowards who made the decision.
In my off the wall proposal, all of the applicants would have said they were black and therefore the individual, or committee, doing the hiring would have to resort to merit and achievement and experience alone to make the decision as they would only be left from minority applicants to choose from, all of them getting the same consideration on their point or quota system.
People are just going to have to learn to always answer the race question with the answer that gets them the most benefits because there is nothing the government can do if you lie.
Who's lying? All of the Evolutionists out there say that humanity originated in Africa, so therefore we all have African heritage. If we're Americans, we can all truthfully say that we are "African-Americans." This is a "slightly" more extended version of what a lilly-white friend of mine, born in South Africa and soon to become a citizen, plans to do.
Hey, if Bill Clinton could be the first Black President, why can't we also be Black? Hell, this is supposed to be an equal opportunity country.
In all seriousness: I am a white man, descended from Eastern European & Russian Jews. I am married to a white woman, who is similarly descended from Eastern European Jews. And she was born in Mexico. Therefore, our daughter (and any other kids we have, will officially be "Hispanic." I find the whole racial catagorization thing to be antithetical to what this country is supposed to be, but I promise everyone out there that if this fecal matter continues to be a part of this nation's policy when my children apply for schools and jobs, we will make use of this label. It is a way to stick it to the anti-American [expletive deleted]ers that proposed and back this stupidity.
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