Race-based policies are not only immoral, they are dangerous
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. This piece originally appeared in Washington Examiner.
There are times when we collectively understand that discrimination in hiring and admissions is wrong. Last week, for example, a Virginia-based technology firm was forced to pay more than $38,000 in penalties for a 2023 job advertisement in search of white applicants.
In a U.S. Department of Justice press release, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division stated, “The Justice Department, working with other government agencies, will continue to hold employers accountable when they violate our nation’s federal civil rights laws.”
Michele Hodge, acting director of the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, joined Clarke in her justified outrage. She said, “We are committed to holding federal contractors accountable for outrageous discriminatory practices like this advertisement.”
Indeed, discrimination on the basis of race is outrageously wrong. Isn’t that what they are saying?
Sadly, no. Rather, the Left enjoys levying discriminatory policy against whites and Asians, even if they are children. According to their hero, Ibram X. Kendi, these types of so-called anti-racist policies essentially are payback for history, and the only way to make up for unjust past discrimination is with unjust present discrimination.
So while we breathe a gasp of moral indignation together about the “whites only” job advertisement at the technology company, our unity, ironically, ends there.
Take medical schools as another example. Many leftist medical schools, such as the University of California, Los Angeles, have reportedly engaged in race-based admissions despite a state law prohibiting such policies.
In order to achieve racial balance, the schools’ metrics have changed from grades and test scores to, well, mostly just race. They may as well hang a sign that says, “Asians need not apply because we don’t need any more of you.”
Does the Left have a problem with this? No, it seems they don’t. But they should.
First, discrimination against any race is morally reprehensible and unconstitutional.
That aside, admissions programs and applications based on so-called equity rather than merit are quite literally dangerous for our health and safety. Following UCLA’s focus on race in admissions, their rank and students’ performance dropped precipitously.
The unintended consequences of such policies for specialized fields, such as medicine, are disastrous. Obviously, no one wants an incompetent doctor, even wealthy leftists.
As the public becomes aware of such considerations in medical schools, they will use information shortcuts to select doctors who have not been given “special consideration” in medical school, which without doubt would include heterosexual Asian males. Their competence will be as guaranteed as it gets because it’s crystal clear that no one is offering them any special favors.
Meanwhile, very qualified individuals belonging to racial groups that have been given a “helping hand” for the sake of “equity” will be viewed with a lens of skepticism and perhaps even avoided. Eventually, reviews and research will show who the most competent doctors are, and which ones have no business practicing medicine.
And guess who gets stuck with the incompetent doctors from the “do-good” medical schools? Poor people. Is that the equality we are targeting in America? I hope not.
So, while we rightly admonish firms with racist hiring policies that are in search of only white applicants, it is also time that we join together in the realization that merit, not equity, wins the day. And all selection decisions based on racial identity are not only immoral, but counterproductive.
