Reverse Discrimination

As I watch this country’s progression from before the Civil War until now, it is apparent that the United States is moving closer and closer to ending racism by the decade. With this progression, I realized that some people might feel discriminated against because some companies and universities are now required to have a certain percent of diverse people in order to prove that racism is no longer prevalent in America. With this requirement, some people, particularly Caucasian males, are beginning to feel discriminated against because they feel that some diverse people are less qualified for an occupation, but are receiving the job instead of the Caucasian males due to the diversity requirement that is now in place in certain parts of America. For example, in New Haven, fire fighters were required to pass a test in order to receive promotions. Only 17 Caucasians and one Hispanic passed the test, so the test was “scraped” because it was a requirement to have a higher percentage of diverse people to be promoted. The fire department then promoted some of the diverse people instead of the Caucasians because of this requirement. Some of the Caucasian males called this “reverse discrimination” because they felt that they were being discriminated against because they could not receive the job that they were qualified for due to their race. The fire fighters who passed the test then sued the city because they felt that they were being discriminated against because of their race. This case is currently being taken to the Supreme Court because, “the city violated [the fire fighter’s] constitutional right to equal treatment” (Richey).

Another Caucasian middle class male writes about this issue of “reverse discrimination” in terms of college scholarships. He states that in his search of finding a college scholarship, one website stated, “Guess what? Nearly everyone's a minority. It's likely that you fit into at least one of the growing minority scholarship categories—nearly everyone does, by some scholarship definition. We'll prove it: African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Female, Multi-racial or Multicultural, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Have we left anyone out?” (collegescholarships.org). His response to that question was that Caucasian males were left out, and he did not understand the reasoning for this. He was astounded that women fell into the category of a minority when they account for 49.2% of the population, and he felt as if the college scholarship program was specifically targeting the Caucasian male group to be the only one that is not eligible for a scholarship. He then argued that people should receive scholarships based on merit. If one person is hard-working and their results illustrate their efforts, they should be given a scholarship regardless of their race.

I completely agree with his idea. I think that race should not even be a factor when it comes to an occupation or a college. In the future, when people apply for an occupation or a college, I think that they should not even be required to provide their gender or race because these things should not determine a person’s success. Unfortunately, this idealistic proposal will probably never happen. So maybe the law that requires a certain percent of diverse people should exist in order to ensure that racism does not occur. Maybe it exists to continue to illustrate the progression that the country has made since the Civil War, to show that the descendants of slaves can now have the same or better jobs than the descendants of masters.