Affirmative Action

* Regarding Robert Scheer’s Column Left, “Blacks Just Need to Learn to Play Golf,” March 19: As one of those blacks with a degree in business that you were referring to, I have always wondered what other skills I needed to acquire to break through the ol’ “glass ceiling.” Fortunately now, thanks to you, I know. Seriously, I am beginning to think that this new assault on affirmative action, which will pass in California and probably nationally, and also the passage of Proposition 187, are some of the best things that could possibly happen to the minority communities.

It is time for the brightest minds in the minority communities to stop waiting to get a chance in corporate America. Unfortunately, rather than seizing the opportunity to use diversity as a powerful tool to better develop, produce and market products, both domestically and globally, corporate America has simply chosen to ignore the potential. What I believe, and, to a degree, am already starting to see, is that the minority communities will turn within, and to each other, to find opportunities. The money and know-how are there to produce and distribute goods and services. However, until now, there has not been a concerted effort to pool resources. I, like most people in minority communities, wanted to believe in the “melting pot” concept of business. However, thanks to the “blame thy neighbor” mentality as the result of the economic conditions, that notion seems to be shattered. Fore!

TRACY R. HILL

Van Nuys

* Scheer points out that minorities and women hold only 5% of the senior management positions in the Fortune 1000 companies. Aren’t senior management positions achieved over a lifetime of climbing the corporate ladder? Aren’t those positions very few, almost by definition? And why is so much emphasis placed on those few positions by those who want to prove some sort of diabolical corporate bigotry?

Why are Americans of Jewish, Chinese, and Japanese ancestry under-represented in the Fortune 1000 upper-management slots? Why are these people also showing incomes higher than the national average? Is it because they have not suffered from discrimination? Is it because they have successfully marched in the streets demanding government programs, and blaming racism?

Is Scheer saying that if there had been no racial discrimination in America whatsoever that every occupation, from basketball player to window washer to engineer would be represented by all ethnic groups in proportion to their numbers in the population?

BOB BENDER

Mission Viejo

* Re Karen Grigsby Bates’ commentary, “We Still Need Affirmative Action,” March 15:

I sympathize with and applaud Gregory Williams because I too dealt with a similar but less-traumatic childhood. It was relatively painless based solely on my white complexion. It was this fact that legitimated my own experience in Orange County. Since I was presumed to be white, I “belonged” with them and therefore gained insight into the true feelings of whites toward other races.

Most Americans’ naivete toward politics and power has allowed affirmative action to become a debatable subject. A realistic perception of the problem clearly shows why it is still required. The real problem stems from the U.S.’s decline and its economic effects. Those in government who employ this issue as a weapon against Middle America’s fears know that affirmative action represents but a tiny issue in the political economy.

STEVE ROCCO

Newport Beach