Did Affirmative Action Work? | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU — Transcript

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1. 0:00Before
2. 0:02Harvard law professor Derek Bell was for
3. 0:04affirmative action, he was against it.
4. 0:06This is noteworthy because Bell is best
5. 0:08known for his contributions to critical
6. 0:10race theory, which claims that racism is
7. 0:12embedded in American institutions and
8. 0:14that the historical mistreatment of
9. 0:16black people largely explains current
10. 0:18disparities. In a 1970 Law Review
11. 0:21article, Belell objected to using
12. 0:23different criteria to assess student
13. 0:25performance depending on race. In the
14. 0:27past, he noted, the small percentages of
15. 0:29blacks admitted to selective law schools
16. 0:31not only met the usual academic
17. 0:33criteria, but were often characterized
18. 0:35by a strong inner drive to equal and, if
19. 0:38at all possible, excel their white
20. 0:40classmates. Admitting blacks who did not
21. 0:42meet accepted standards was, in Bell's
22. 0:44words, a form of benevolent paternalism.
23. 0:47He warned that racial preferences risked
24. 0:49tainting the accomplishments of those
25. 0:51who succeeded in the eyes of whites and
26. 0:54blacks alike. Whatever arguments are
27. 0:56used to justify such a policy, he wrote,
28. 0:59there is little denying that it robs
29. 1:00those black students who have done well
30. 1:02of receiving real credit and the boost
31. 1:05in confidence that their accomplishments
32. 1:06merit. Although Bell later changed his
33. 1:09mind, he offered a preview of a half
34. 1:12ccentury of arguments that would be made
35. 1:14against racial preferences that might
36. 1:16give pause to those who are inclined to
37. 1:18dismiss criticism of affirmative action
38. 1:20as racist.
39. 1:22Bell's concerns about the psychological
40. 1:24toll of affirmative action turned out to
41. 1:26be preient. More than five decades of
42. 1:28racial preferences have created the
43. 1:30impression that black advancement is
44. 1:32impossible without them. Justice Sonia
45. 1:35Sotomayor wrote in her descent of the
46. 1:382023 Supreme Court ruling against
47. 1:40affirmative action, students for fair
48. 1:42admissions v. Harvard, that the court's
49. 1:44ruling rolls back decades of precedent
50. 1:47and momentous progress. Justice Katanji
51. 1:50Brown Jackson said the majority had
52. 1:52detached itself from this country's
53. 1:55actual past and present experiences.
54. 1:58This doomsay assumes racial favoritism
55. 2:00is a prerequisite for black
56. 2:02accomplishment. Because it has been
57. 2:04asserted for decades that affirmative
58. 2:06action and government programs produce
59. 2:08today's black middle class, few bother
60. 2:10to question the claim. But when we do, a
61. 2:13very different narrative emerges. During
62. 2:16the first twothirds of the 20th century,
63. 2:19long before affirmative action and an
64. 2:21expanded welfare state, black Americans
65. 2:24experienced remarkable progress.
66. 2:26Education gaps narrowed, incomes rose,
67. 2:29poverty declined. This history is often
68. 2:31ignored because activists and
69. 2:33politicians prefer a narrative of
70. 2:35suffering. Yet, it should be a source of
71. 2:37pride for blacks and inspiration for
72. 2:40other minorities. In 1940, 25 to 29y old
73. 2:44whites had 3.6 years more of schooling
74. 2:48on average than blacks. By 1960, both
75. 2:51groups had advanced, but blacks outpaced
76. 2:54whites, and the gap had narrowed by more
77. 2:56than half to 1.7 years. Between 1940 and
78. 3:001960, the percentage of blacks with a
79. 3:03high school diploma more than tripled,
80. 3:04again, growing faster than whites. But
81. 3:07as colleges began compromising admission
82. 3:09standards in the late 1960s, these
83. 3:12trends slowed. According to Harvard
84. 3:14political scientist Robert Putnham and
85. 3:16co-author Shayen Garrett, the fastest
86. 3:19and most dramatic progress toward parody
87. 3:20in education between blacks and whites
88. 3:23finishing high school was achieved
89. 3:24before 1970.
90. 3:27The same story can be told about income.
91. 3:29More education meant better jobs and
92. 3:31higher pay. And just as educational
93. 3:34gains among blacks were speedier before
94. 3:35affirmative action, so too were wage
95. 3:38gains. Yet, affirmative action policies
96. 3:40were given far more credit than they
97. 3:42deserved. Mainly because proponents
98. 3:44started the story in the middle. In
99. 3:461939, the annual median income was $350
100. 3:51for black males and $1,000 for white
101. 3:53males. By 1960, those figures had
102. 3:56reached 3,000 and $5,000, respectively.
103. 4:00An increase of 570% for blacks and 360%
104. 4:05for whites. All of this occurred before
105. 4:07affirmative action and the civil rights
106. 4:10legislation of the mid 1960s. Between
107. 4:121940 and 1970, the median annual income
108. 4:16for black men rose from 40% to 60% of
109. 4:19the white male median, a 20 point gain.
110. 4:22Under the first 25 years of affirmative
111. 4:24action, 1970 to 1995, it grew only seven
112. 4:28more points to 67%.
113. 4:31Among black women, the pre-affirmative
114. 4:33action gains were even more striking.
115. 4:35Median earnings climbed from 36% of the
116. 4:38white female median in 1940 to 73% by
117. 4:421970, a 37 point gain. Between 1970 and
118. 4:471995, however, black female pay rose by
119. 4:50just 16 more points. Black earnings were
120. 4:53clearly rising faster before affirmative
121. 4:56action. Central to the social justice
122. 4:59ideology behind affirmative action is
123. 5:01the belief that disparities mainly
124. 5:03result from discrimination, not from
125. 5:05differences in skills, behavior, or
126. 5:07culture. Accordingly, black advancement
127. 5:10is said to depend on policies that
128. 5:12counter antilack bias with anti-white
129. 5:14bias. Yet the phenomenal rise of blacks
130. 5:17in the first twothirds of the 20th
131. 5:18century, despite centuries of
132. 5:20mistreatment, strongly rebuke such
133. 5:23claims. History shows that black people
134. 5:26made greater strides under colorblind
135. 5:28policies than under affirmative action.
136. 5:31Derek Bell had it right the first time.
137. 5:33I'm Jason Riley, senior fellow at the
138. 5:35Manhattan Institute and author of the
139. 5:37affirmative action myth: Why blacks
140. 5:39don't need racial preferences to succeed
141. 5:41for Prager University. Thank you for
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