Save Affirmative Action, A Compelling Testimonial

The following article is a verbatim script of the testimonial offered at the WE CAN Coalition Hearing to Save Affirmative Action February 13 by Dr. Terry Jones, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Printed here with his permission.

It’s time for plain speaking–it’s time to tell it like it is.

To call a ban on affirmative action a “civil rights initiative” is a lie. It deprives people of color of the right to have the sufferings and effects of centuries of slavery and segregation overcome. It deprives whites of the ability to support policies that will move us to a more equal society. It deprives women of the right to have the impact of centuries of discriminatory laws undone. It deprives men of the ability to champion programs will lead to us a more equal society.

To pretend that in 2008 all whites and people of color have equal opportunity is to deny history. When Missouri became a U.S. territory in 1803, it insisted on practicing slavery–having the government empowered to capture and return runaway slaves. When Missouri became a state in 1821, it insisted on retaining slavery and enacted laws making it a felony for whites to educate people of color. Wealth builds over many generations. Whites could pass on assets to their children, slaves could not.

When the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery in 1865, Missouri moved immediately to limit access to education for people of color. It immediately segregated public schools, a practice also adopted by parochial and private institutions. For fifty-two years, there was only one high school for African Americans, Sumner. For over a century, the University of Missouri was for whites only. For over a half century, Washington University and Saint Louis University were for whites only.

You cannot severely limit or outright deny access to education to an entire race decade after decade and suddenly declare that does not matter. You cannot say to an entire gender that you can be a nurse, but not a doctor, you can be a secretary, but not the boss, you can be a teacher, but not the superintendent for decade after decade and then, when the glass ceiling has a few cracks, declare that all is well.

Mr. Connerly’s proposal banning affirmative action was bad public policy for California, Washington, and Michigan–the three states which have adopted it. It is much, much worse for Missouri. Unlike the other three states, which never legalized slavery and stayed on the more polite side of Jim Crow practices, Missouri’s past–its constitutions and laws–are littered with racism.

It is–to put it kindly–a misrepresentation to call affirmative action “reverse racism.” Missouri has never had systematic discrimination against whites or against men. I, as a white male, have no grounds to call for justice for past policies. There were none targeted at me.

But, as a white male, I do have the obligation to fight for affirmative action–not simply because it is the right thing to do–although that should be reason enough. But it is also the smart thing to do. The more equal everyone’s opportunity, the more that is done to level a playing field so unbalanced by past laws, the better all of us will be.

To accomplish this, Missourians need a government that can set things right, that can practice affirmative action and, in so doing, create a more just and a more prosperous society.