In Race Matters, Cornel West devotes an entire chapter to criticizing and justifying affirmative action. On the one hand, he claims that this policy is aimed at middle-class African Americans and harms other minority strata. On the other hand, West still justifies politics because he believes that “without affirmative action, racial and sexual discrimination would return with a vengeance” (West, 1993, p. 64). He believes that America tends to redistribute wealth on a racial basis due to the historical past. I think that West’s argument is vulnerable to criticism, as it can be refuted both factually and logically.
The rise of racist and sexist tendencies due to the lack of affirmative action is doubtful because it is not the only element in the fight against racial and sexual prejudice. I would argue that the liberalization trend is strong and prominent around the country and that the policy’s absence would not reverse it. For example, the affirmative action ban in universities such as Texas A&M, UW, University of Florida, did not decrease the number of Black and Hispanic students (Affirmative action, n.d.). In addition, West’s prediction of the return of racism is based solely on reference to the country’s past and historical experience. However, predicting the future requires a more variable factual justification since historical experience in its pure form cannot be used as a predictive tool.
West could reply that my arguments are valid only if we assume that the American social system has been restructured entirely and racism and sexism are wholly excluded from it. However, West is of the opinion that fascism, racism, and sexism are ingrained in human nature and cannot be exterminated (Miah, 2022). These beliefs can only be controlled by individuals and sets of politics that smooth out inequalities by redistributing resources.
References
Miah, M. (2022). Cornel West’s Race Matters. Against the Current. Web.
West, C. (1993). Race Matters. Beacon Press.
Affirmative action. (n.d.). Ballotpedia. Web.