Hell Yeah, I'm Smart

My letter to good guy blogger Eric Alterman is posted, in part, on his MSNBC blog today. How exciting! I was responding to a contributor's comment that affirmative action is well... as "Brad" put it, "a perversion of MLK Jr.'s dream." In other words, he states that affirmative action is somehow unfair, to both white and black people alike. I argue differently. You can go to the blog and read my genius comments.

Ironically, my Dad and his partner argued against affirmative action in a fairly high profile case where a black schoolteacher got a job over a white schoolteacher. It's a complex issue. I certainly wouldn't be too happy if I lost my job, or didn't get one, because I was the wrong color. But who am I to complain? My ancestors weren't whipped and forced to pick cotton for over two hundred years. (Well... we were forced to build the pyramids, but we already got our payback for that. Ten plagues anyone?)

Plus, if my background was equal to the black person who got my job, then its my own damn fault I didn't do better than him and seal the deal. I bet the black guy worked a lot harder to get the similar resume I got.

The bottom line is, we white people benefitted from affirmative action for hundreds of years. The jobs went to us, and not black people, simply because of the color of their skin. If the current form of affirmative action can help erase this inequality, we have to deal with it. There will be a time when affirmative action isn't necessary. But we haven't reached it yet. It hasn't even been 50 years since the civil rights movement. It's too soon to stop being proactive.

Anyways, enjoy my name appearing on MSNBC. Hopefully it won't be the last of my brilliant comments to warrant attention.
---

UPDATE: Perhaps I'm not smart after all. I just realized I used "site" instead of "cite." Mom, I'm sorry.

---