Affirmative Action Focus

R. Richard Banks is to be commended for the candor of his article (“Return the Focus to Redressing Wrongs Traceable to Slavery,” Commentary, Feb. 3), which confirms social engineering programs designed to redress perceived inequities quickly lose their attractiveness when benefits accrue to others also presumably qualified. “What’s in it for me” is an honest and straightforward motivating force we can all understand.

However, economic opportunity should be colorblind; diverse is what we are and it is as unseemly for a black face to bemoan the fact as for a white.

ROBERT I. SHARP

South Pasadena

Banks is right about affirmative action. As a fervent advocate of affirmative action, I am disturbed to see the neglect of and discrimination against black Americans increasing in spite of attention to “diversity,” which is supposed to address the issue of racial injustice.

Everyone should be given economic, social and political opportunity. But most of all we must honor our commitment to those who for 400 years have been victims of slavery and racism. The legacy of that unspeakably violent treatment of our black brothers and sisters cannot be ignored. Millions of children in our country still suffer from that soul-killing violence. They see the hatred and rejection in our eyes.

Nothing but a full commitment to racial justice will do. American will never achieve a healthy and peaceful society without facing white America’s responsibility for the past brutal treatment and for the present indifference toward black America. We must insist on true racial justice with dignity and even some preferential treatment to level the playing field. The legacy of slavery lives on as long as we ignore the damage our attitude of white superiority continues to do.

TANJA WINTER

La Jolla

Banks has a weak, though creative, argument for the perpetuation of reverse discrimination (affirmative action).

Slavery is long gone. In case you haven’t heard, it was abolished more than 100 years ago. It’s now time, as Texas Sen. Phil Gramm is fond of saying, “to get out of the wagon and start pulling.” The African American community can only work this slavery issue for so long before it loses its credibility. Preferential hiring, quotas and all the other trappings of affirmative action are anathema to both justice and common sense. May they forever rest in peace!

RICHARD J. SILVESTRO

Santa Maria