Just as race issues have returned to the forefront
of political debate, Virginia Sen. James Webb (D) on
Friday reiterated his opposition to some affirmative
action programs and suggested that white Americans are
being "marginalized" by current government policies.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed
headlined "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege,"
Webb writes: "Forty years ago, as the United States
experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed
monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served
as the whipping post for almost every debate about power
and status in America. After a full generation of such
debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a
plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have
marginalized many white workers."
This is not a new topic for Webb, whose complicated views
on race-based programs were an issue in his 2006
Senate campaign, when some of his fellow Democrats
complained that Webb sounded like a Republican. In a 2000 book review, also
published in the Wall Street Journal, Webb wrote that affirmative
action "has within one generation brought about a
permeating state-sponsored racism that is as odious as
the Jim Crow laws it sought to countermand."
Webb has said he supports some preferential programs for
African Americans but not for other ethnic and immigrant
groups. He reiterated that point in Friday's op-ed.
"I have dedicated my political career to bringing
fairness to America's economic system and to our work
force, regardless of what people look like or where they
may worship," Webb writes. "Unfortunately, present-day
diversity programs work against that notion, having
expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they
now favor anyone who does not happen to be white."
Webb's latest airing of his views comes during a week
when racial issues have dominated the headlines, after the
firing of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod
sparked heated debates on alleged "reverse racism" and
whether the Obama administration -- and society as a whole
-- is capable of engaging in mature discussions
of racial issues without descending into acrimony.
Some conservatives have cited the controversy over the New Black
Panther party and some comments by U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder to promote the idea that the
current White House is biased against whites.
Webb makes no such allegation in Friday's column, though
he does complain that immigrants who have come to America
in recent decades "have frequently been the beneficiaries
of special government programs. The same cannot be said of
many hard-working white Americans, including those whose
roots in America go back more than 200 years."
Webb notes that, "[c]ontrary to assumptions in the law,
white America is hardly a monolith." This is also a
frequent topic for the Virginia senator. He authored a
well-received book, "Born Fighting," that
focused on "how the Scots-Irish shaped America." And in yet another Wall Street Journal
column, a 1995 piece titled, "In Defense of
Joe Six Pack," Webb pointed out that there were huge
variations in income and educational status among white
Americans.
He argued then that "less-advantaged white cultures by
and large did the most to lay out the infrastructure of
this country, quite often suffering educational and
professional regression as they tamed the wilderness,
built the towns, roads and schools, and initiated a
democratic way of life that later white cultures were able
to take advantage of without paying the price of
pioneering. Today they have the least, socio-economically,
to show for these contributions." Webb even claimed "the
prospect of a class war is genuine" among those who have
felt left behind by government policies.
Now that he's in the Senate, Webb is advocating a
significant shift in government priorities when it comes
to race.
"Where should we go from here?" Webb asks in Friday's
piece. "Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those
African-Americans still in need, government-directed
diversity programs should end. Nondiscrimination laws
should be applied equally among all citizens, including
those who happen to be white."
