[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 70 (Monday, May 1, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S5928]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            THE WRONG TARGET

Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, recently, Bob Herbert, a columnist 
for the New York Times, had a column about affirmative action and how 
the politics of meanness is in the ascent.
  My colleagues have heard me address this question before. Affirmative 
action is basically an excellent thing that has helped to make 
opportunity available to many people who otherwise would not have it. 
Has it been abused occasionally? Yes, like any good thing is abused, 
just as religion and education are abused.
  In this column, he concludes ``All of this will pass. Eventually 
we'll find our higher selves.''
  I hope he is right.
  But there is both the beast and the noble in all of us, and unless 
our leaders appeal to the noble in us, instead of the beast--instead of 
hatred and fear--the better instincts in our people will not come 
forward. That is true, not only in the United States but in any 
country.
  It is important for politicians, journalists, members of the clergy, 
business leaders, labor leaders, and people of every walk of life to 
call upon us to reach out and do what is noble.
  ``One nation, under God, indivisible'' should be more than a phrase 
in our country.
  At that point, I ask that the Bob Herbert article be printed in the 
Record.
  The article follows:
                [From the New York Times, Apr. 5, 1995]

                            The Wrong Target

                            (By Bob Herbert)

       One of the many important issues to emerge battered and 
     distorted from the insidious cavern of political demagoguery 
     is affirmative action. If you listen to the latest crop of 
     compulsively deceitful politicians, or tune into the howling 
     degradation of talk radio, you might become convinced that 
     the biggest problem of discrimination in the United States 
     today is bias against white men.
       The complaint is that legions of African-Americans, women 
     and assorted others are taking jobs, promotions, classroom 
     slots, theater tickets and the best seats on the bus from the 
     folks who really deserve them--white guys.
       The arguments against affirmative action are almost always 
     crafted in racial terms because the demagogues know that race 
     is the way to get the emotional flames roaring. In fact, the 
     primary beneficiaries of affirmative action are women. If all 
     parties would lower their voices and try to communicate in 
     good faith, it could be pointed out that while there are 
     problems with affirmative action--including some serious 
     problems of fairness--the negative impact on white men has 
     not been great, and the problems are correctable.
       What you do not want to do, in a country where there are 
     still prodigious amounts of race and sex discrimination, is 
     abandon a long and honorable fight for justice in the face of 
     political hysteria.
       The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission recently reported that 
     95 percent of top corporate management positions in the 
     United States are held by white men. Throughout corporate 
     America, women, blacks and Latinos are paid less than white 
     men for doing the same work. And if you believe there is a 
     bias against white males in hiring, just pair up a white guy 
     with a black guy and send them off in search of the same job.
       Racism against blacks and sexism against women abound. And 
     yet the outrage we hear today is about discrimination against 
     white men.
       A report on discrimination in employment commissioned by 
     the Labor Department found very little evidence of employment 
     discrimination against white men. The report was prepared by 
     Alfred W. Blumrosen, a law professor at Rutgers University. 
     It found that a ``high proportion'' of the so-called 
     ``reverse discrimination'' claims brought by white men were 
     without merit.
       The politicians will tell you that the attack on 
     affirmative action is a cry for racial justice. That is not 
     so. It is an expression of the anger and frustration felt by 
     large numbers of overwrought and underemployed white men. 
     Their anxiety is understandable, but affirmative action is 
     not their enemy. Downsized to the point of despair, their 
     wages stagnant or falling, their prospects dim, these men are 
     caught up in the treacherous world of technological 
     innovation, economic globalization and unrestrained corporate 
     greed. Buffeted by forces that seem beyond their control 
     (forces that are affecting everybody, not just white men), 
     they listen to the demagogues. It's the blacks doing it to 
     you. It's the women. They're getting your piece of the pie. 
     Otherwise you'd be O.K.


                  affirmative action isn't anti-white

       The Clinton Administration, under pressure, is reviewing 
     Federal affirmative action programs. Fine. Let whatever 
     abuses exist come to light. Scrap whatever programs are 
     unnecessary or unfair. Where affirmative action is being used 
     to help the disadvantaged, remove the racial or ethnic 
     requirements. There are white kids all over the country who 
     are economically and educationally deprived. Give them a 
     hand.
       But neither Bill Clinton nor anybody else should back off 
     from the commitment to fight what is still an enormous and 
     debilitating problem--discrimination against blacks, other 
     ethnic minorities and women. Where affirmative action is 
     needed to counter the effects of discrimination, let it be.
       The United States is going through a period in which the 
     politics of meanness is in the ascent. In many circles, it is 
     unfashionable to be compassionate. Putting down others is the 
     dominant mode of political expression, preferably with a 
     vicious remark accompanied by cruel laughter.
       All of this will pass. Eventually we'll find our higher 
     selves and chase the dogs of bigotry and fear and ignorance 
     from the yard. I am convinced this will happen. We are 
     Americans, after all. We are better than we have been 
     behaving lately.
     

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