From: Baltimore Yearly Meeting Working Group on Racism (WGR)
Thinking About Race (September 2023)—Coates on Affirmative Action
With the elimination of affirmative action being in the news, plus many conversations about
reparations within BYM and well beyond, it seems timely to return to some of TaNehisi Coates’
thoughts in his 2014 article in The Atlantic, “The Case for Reparations.”
Some brief excerpts:
“…. Is affirmative action meant to increase ‘diversity’? If so, it only tangentially relates to the
specific problems of black people – the problem of what America has taken from them over
several centuries.
“This confusion about affirmative action’s aims, along with our inability to face up to the
particular history of white-imposed black disadvantage, dates back to the policy’s origins.
‘There is no fixed and firm definition of affirmative action,’ an appointee in Johnson’s
Department of Labor declared. ‘Affirmative action is anything that you have to do to get
results. But this does not necessarily include preferential treatment.’
“Yet America was built on the preferential treatment of white people – 395 years of it [in 2014].
Vaguely endorsing a cuddly, feel-good diversity does very little to redress this.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
The above note was prepared by the BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) and sent to the designated liaison at each local Meeting. The BYM WGR meets most months on the first Saturday, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, currently via Zoom. If you would like to attend, contact the clerk at david.etheridge@verizon.net.