Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen uses theFrank Ricci Supreme Court case to attack affirmative action:
The justification for affirmative action gets weaker and weaker. Maybe once it was possible to argue that some innocent people had to suffer in the name of progress, but a glance at the White House strongly suggests that things have changed. For most Americans, race has become supremely irrelevant. Everyone knows this. Every poll shows this. Maybe the Supreme Court will recognize this.
First of all, affirmative action was never solely about racism–though the media have long made race their primary consideration in how they talk about the issue.
But to Cohen’s actual, umm, “point”: Every poll shows that race is irrelevant? Too bad for Cohen that the Washington Post recently asked people about this in a poll (1/13-16/09):
“How big a problem is racism in our society today? Is it a big problem, somewhat of a problem, a small problem or not a problem at all?”
A Big Problem: 26%
Somewhat of a Problem: 48%
A Small Problem: 22%
Not a Problem: 4%
Richard Cohen appears to be in the 4 percent who don’t think that racism is at all a problem anymore. The other 96 percent of us wish him luck in his journey back to the real world.
About Peter Hart
That Cohen thinks polls tell us how relevant racism remains demonstrates that he’s defining racism strictly as personal attitudes–if it’s all in our heads polls are how we find out how much it’s still there. But it’s a structural issue. It’s built into the foundations of our financial system, our educational system, our “justice” system–all our institutions.
Cohen doesn’t have to look any further than the Racial Wealth Divide link over on http://www.faireconomy.org (United for a Fair Economy’s site) to find statistics that show how racism continues to shape our economic lives. For example, reading Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008 he could learn that Black and Latino borrowers *in all economic brackets* were disproportionately steered into subprime loans. Yep, subprime borrowers include a lot of people of color who were eligible for loans with better terms.
A little research into any aspect of our lives will show Cohen a racial divide in actual outcomes. And that attitude that race no longer matters? If he’d ever heard a lecture by Tim Wise–or if he’d looked at historic results of similar polls–he’d know that we’ve been telling pollsters that racism is no longer a problem for decades. How well did the polls that showed that attitude prevailing in the 1960s reflect the reality of people’s lives?
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[…] I pointed out then (FAIR Blog, 5/5/09) this wasn't just weird–it was false. Cohen's paper had commissioned a poll a few […]
[…] I pointed out then (FAIR Blog, 5/5/09) this wasn’t just weird–it was false. Cohen’s paper had commissioned a poll a few […]
[…] I pointed out then (FAIR Blog, 5/5/09) this wasn’t just weird–it was false. Cohen’s paper had commissioned a poll a few […]