I have long harped about affirmative action flapdoodle.
1991: "Affirmative action tries to do the impossible — resulting in an incredibly complex bending of rules and regulations [that damages] the credibility of those targeted for help." 1998: "Not reaching the cause issue in racial disparity precludes solutions."
2001: "The arrogant liberal mind assumes that minorities can never solve problems or break down barriers without government assistance."
2002: "Affirmative action deepens the racial divide because it eliminates merit."
I lack the strength and inspiration to write of this folly again. Yes, yes, the New York Times was hoodwinked by 27-year-old Jayson Blair, a black, one of the beneficiaries of its AA programs. At last count, EST, the young fella had 73 false stories, and spot checks of 600 other articles didn't look good. The sensitive white editorial types had this grifter and the shame he has heaped upon a 152-year-old newspaper coming. They pay a dear price for allowing their organization to be consumed with and by diversity, at the expense of merit.
On March 8, 2003, the Times announced its "20 Triumphant Spirits Earn Times Scholarships," those high school students given Times scholarships pursuant to an EEOC consent decree. The students, in addition to a B Section photo with their fellow AA awardees, receive: $7,500 per year for four years ("a sum that in many cases exceeds their parents' annual earnings," the Times waxes noblesseingly obligingly, and I'd like a fact checker on that tidbit), a computer, a printer and a $500 per week summer intern job where, apparently, they will be able to make stuff up for stories still fit to print under Times crackerjack scrutiny.
These "spirits" include La-Toya, Ramirez, Okah, Sheveen, Ourasanah, Mykhaylovsky, Lin and Ofensgeym, chosen "by a panel of Times executives, based on recommendations from review committees of editors and reporters."
These would be reporters, editors and executives consumed with white guilt and prepared to tolerate incompetence in young charges moved to the head of opportunity by their nationalities and race, not their merit. The Times admits as much, "One [goal of the scholarship program] was to reward academic excellence, but without slavish attention to class rankings and SAT scores. Another was to help young people who had been through truly hard times." Such claptrap opened the door for Jayson Blair and his Ponzi scheme of words and facts.
Howell Raines, the Times executive editor, confessed that the Blair experience was affirmative action run amok. Editors warned about Blair. No one dared to terminate a protected class member. Blair filed reports from places he had never been, made stuff up and lifted AP reports for his stories. The young man was in over his head, a victim of advancement come too quickly. Merit was missing for the sake of racial diversity.
Raines "told his staff at a closed-door meeting that he believes in 'aggressively providing hiring and career opportunities for minorities' and that he, 'as a white man from Alabama, with those convictions, gave [Blair] one chance too many.' "
Herein lies evidence of a liberalism trait that Islamic dissidents refer to as being "pathologically nice." For liberals, terrorists "are frustrated angels forever thwarted by the United States of America." Ibn Warraq notes the "angel" theory permeates liberal views.
To the liberal mind, the homeless are frustrated angels, particularly during Republican presidential administrations. The Boston Rescue Mission found that 49 percent of the homeless have criminal records and 32 percent have spent time in jail. Ask Elizabeth Smart's family how they feel about the homeless following the kidnapping of their daughter by a homeless, self-declared prophet they had hired out of compassion. Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute calls the homeless "dangerous or violent" people.
The pathologically nice offered a national conniption when President Bush referred to the "axis of evil." Former President Carter called Bush's phrase "overly simplistic and counterproductive." Carter proposes, instead, opening a dialogue with North Korea's Kim Jong II.
Pathological niceness insists upon negotiations with a man who uses torture, starvation and nuclear potential to hold a people in submission. The pathologically nice still maintain Saddam was not all that bad, even as children are released from prisons, mass graves are uncovered and Dr. Germ surrenders.
Memo to pathologically nice liberals: Evil exists; all those who are homeless are not angels; and race is not a proxy for merit. Some people of color are incompetent. The pathologically nice Raines and his editors sullied the reputation of a centuries-old newspaper. Blair played his race card handily with these pathologically nice chumps. Incompetence via diversity derailed an organization. To the embarrassing end, Raines et al. remained pathologically correct (PC) liberals.
Would that the Times, its editors and its reporters remember this lesson when they indict corporations for their lack of diversity. Perhaps in the interest of self-preservation, corporations are hiring and firing on the basis of merit and qualifications, not race. They are just, fair and equitable, but not pathologically nice. Thank goodness for mean merit.
Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Her e-mail address is mmjdiary@aol.com