Iowa Caucus Should Signal End of Affirmative Action

More than 90% of the population of Iowa is white. Just over 2% are black. Yet in the Iowa Democratic Caucus, the only black candidate in the race enjoyed a resounding political victory. What more proof do we need that for all intents and purposes, racism against blacks in American is dead and gone?

Following the civil rights movement in the sixties, the Boomer generation was rightly reeducated that all Americans are created equal, regardless of race or gender. Older generations were harder to convince, but most of them have passed on now, leaving the previous prejudices that supported American apartheid long gone.

In more recent decades, whites have been doing their best to prove that they are fair to minorities, and, other than a few isolated criminal cases, have been predominantly successful in doing so. The only ones not buying it seem to be the aging Civil Rights leaders, who recognize that if they declare victory (as they should do, particularly in light of recent events), they’re out of a job. Unfortunately for the nation, there’s not much likelihood of that happening anytime soon.

The Civil Rights movement was about equality, about everyone starting on a level playing field and having an equal chance to succeed or fail as their talents allowed. It was never supposed to be about one group getting special treatment over another, or about whites and blacks changing places as to who was the oppressor and who was the oppressed. Nor was it meant to guarantee that all blacks have happy and successful lives, any more than it’s possible for all whites to do so. It was only meant to give everyone the same opportunities to succeed.

Affirmative Action, that poorly-defined practice of discreetly using racial preference (even when it meant having to settle for less qualified applicants) in order to prove our fairness by the numbers (NEVER to be called a quota, of course), should not have been implemented in the first place. It contradicted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that guaranteed equality. Quite simply, racial preference is racial preference, regardless of which side of the coin you’re on. There’s no such thing as "reverse discrimination," only discrimination.

With the success of black Barack Obama in white Iowa, all Americans should be celebrating the death of Affirmative Action, and the confirmation that all of our nation’s efforts to distance ourselves from our racist past have, at last, succeeded. This is a watershed moment, the moment that our hard-fought battle has finally been won. It’s a wake that should be one heck of a party, and one all Americans should celebrate together.

It’s been a long time coming. We’ve waited impatiently for an entire white generation that didn’t want to give up their privileges to die off. It would be a shame and a disappointment if we have to wait for the current generation of equally intransigent black leaders to pass on or fade away into obscurity before the real celebration can begin. It would be positively legendary if they instead claimed victory and joined the party!