The Tragedy of Affirmative Action – WSJ

Between 1940 and 1970, the median annual income for black men rose from 41% to 59% of the median annual white male income, an 18-point gain. Yet under the first quarter-century of affirmative action, 1970-95, black male earnings as a percentage of white earnings grew by only 8 more points, to 67%. Among black women, the pre affirmative-action gains were even more dramatic. Median black female earnings climbed from 36% of the white female median in 1940 to 73% by 1970. Between 1970 and 1995, however, pay for black women grew by only 16 more points. Black earnings clearly were rising at a much faster clip prior to affirmative action. They continued to rise thereafter, but more slowly. To say that affirmative action led to the jump in black incomes is to ignore these pre-existing trends.

Central to the social-justice ideology that promotes affirmative action is a belief that statistical disparities among groups result mainly from discrimination rather than from statistical differences in skills, behaviors and attitudes. Accordingly, black social and economic advancement is said to be dependent on policies that counter antiblack bias with antiwhite bias. Yet the phenomenal rise of blacks in the first two-thirds of the 20th century, despite centuries of maltreatment, provides a strong rebuke to such claims. History shows that black people have made greater strides under policies of colorblindness than affirmative action. At best, race preferences have helped to continue something that was already happening. At worst, they ve done more to throttle than to expedite black upward mobility.

via www.wsj.com

Jason Riley.