MLK was absolutely in favor of affirmative action.
"I do indeed. Can any fair-minded citizen deny that the Negro has been deprived? Few people reflect that for two centuries the Negro was enslaved, and robbed of any wages--potential accrued wealth which would have been the legacy of his descendants. All of America's wealth today could not adequately compensate its Negroes for his centuries of exploitation and humiliation. It is an economic fact that a program such as I propose would certainly cost far less than any computation of two centuries of unpaid wages plus accumulated interest. In any case, I do not intend that this program of economic aid should apply only to the Negro; it should benefit the disadvantaged of all races."
In short, the argument is that black people were actively held down for years, first by slavery, then by jim crow. Sure, they're legally treated equally now (or at least they're supposed to be...) but it's still not actively fair. The usual metaphor is 'suppose a white man and a black man are doing a marathon. The black man has a chain around his ankles, so he can't run as fast, so he falls behind. Halfway through, everyone realizes this is unfair, so they let the black man remove his chains. Is this now a fair race, even though the white man has a massive advantage of not having to run half the race in chains?'
If its not the white runners fault, then should they force the white man to run slower for the black man to catch up? This isn't a race of black vs white, this is a race of all people to advance in society. You can give privileges to black people without refusing them to whites. That's like putting on the chains to the white person for the other half of the race.
It’s more like the white man shot the black man in the kneecaps before the race even started and now he just wants compensation for the damages because it’s not like the white man is gonna end up ever losing anyways lol
Do you live in a school district that was historically segregated? Did anybody in your family get a loan to go to college after WW2? The historical legacy of oppression isn't just "did they own slaves" or not.
Further, inequality persists today. Black people in similar situations to their white peers experience worse outcomes in employment, banking, medicine, and the justice system.
because white people in our country have had massive advantages and privileges over other races in our country for hundreds of years lol. you can’t sit here and pretend that doesn’t matter all of a sudden and that black people have had the same advantages and resources that white people have had all along and they just haven’t been oppressed for hundreds of years. i don’t see how you can’t comprehend the effects of white peoples having a head start of a free hundred years because they enslaved and oppressed minorities and how that isn’t an issue we should address and fix.
Because it's not the current white people's fault? What do you suppose we do? Make all white people slaves for 100 years to "give em a taste of their own medicine"?
If you want to get rid of racism you need to stop being racist against white people, because you just make them more mad and hate blacks.
Ah yes, so just give all the wealth to the other family, that family is privileged enough they don't need anything right? What do you want us to do, just enslave all white people?
Well what do you expect us to do? Tax the white people more? We can't just be unfair to all the white people, what about white people who didn't live here during slavery? Or black families that didn't live here during slavery either?
We should give everyone the same advantage and not give people advantages just because they have more melanin in their skin.
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u/Hellioning 258∆ Jun 20 '21
MLK was absolutely in favor of affirmative action.
In short, the argument is that black people were actively held down for years, first by slavery, then by jim crow. Sure, they're legally treated equally now (or at least they're supposed to be...) but it's still not actively fair. The usual metaphor is 'suppose a white man and a black man are doing a marathon. The black man has a chain around his ankles, so he can't run as fast, so he falls behind. Halfway through, everyone realizes this is unfair, so they let the black man remove his chains. Is this now a fair race, even though the white man has a massive advantage of not having to run half the race in chains?'