http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/COUNTER_VIEW_Stop_giving_handouts/articleshow/3190006.cms
COUNTER VIEW: Stop giving handouts 3 Jul 2008, 0005 hrs IST, Tara Gupta A lot of ink has been spilt over Barack Obama's political success as an African-American. The victory of the Democrats' presumptive presidential candidate in the primary race was hailed as opening a new chapter in improving race relations in America. However, this success might claim as a casualty a policy Obama supports, that of affirmative action. Many commentators are questioning the necessity of conti-nuing with this policy, now that Americans have proven that they are capable of electing a coloured person to the top job. And they have a point. If so many Americans can consider making Obama president, how can racial prejudice be so prevalent and deep-rooted that it justifies special efforts to place minorities in coveted jobs and schools? According to Ward Connerly, the policy is tantamount to a form of racial discrimination against whites and Asians. Affirmative action, he says, is a policy based on the presumption that America is institutionally racist. But Obama's success belies this assumption. That he has been able to become the leading presidential candidate would support the view that affirmative action, if it was ever necessary, is no longer required. Reservations of any kind, be they the American experiment with affirmative action or the Indian example of quotas, have tended to backfire. Affirmative action has led to reverse discrimination against white people while India's quota policies have seen various groups agitating to get themselves classified in one quota-eligible category or the other. Equal opportunity should be assured to a person, whether male or female, black or white or brown. Discriminatory policies such as affirmative action, no matter how well intentioned, tend to have unintended consequences. The erosion of affirmative action is inevitable. Obama's success may hasten the process but previous achievements by blacks in business, government, entertainment and other fields have already undermined the argument that racial discrimination is rampant in America.
