Webb's Bold Stand Against Racial Preferences

Because of his willingness to speak out against affirmative action, GOP voters in Virginia might decide to support Democratic Senator James Webb in 2012.

Should conservative Republicans rally behind Democratic Senator James Webb’s 2012 reelection in Virginia? Right-wing political hacks, of course, will say no: Because to them, the fact that Webb caucuses with the Democrats is reason enough to oppose him.

But more thoughtful Republicans interested in effecting good and just public policy might want to consider backing this former Reagan administration official. (Webb served as Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs before being promoted to Secretary of the Navy.)

I say this because of a remarkable op-ed that Webb published in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege.”

“America still owes a debt to its black citizens,” Webb wrote, “but government programs to help all ‘people of color’ are unfair. They should end.”

Webb’s reasoning is sound and indisputable. There is no monolithic “white culture.” Instead, there are numerous white socioeconomic groups, some of which are as disadvantaged, educationally and economically, as African-Americans. For example, Webb notes:

In 1974, a National Opinion Research Center (NORC) study of white ethnic groups showed that white Baptists nationwide averaged only 10.7 years of education, a level almost identical to blacks' average of 10.6 years, and well below that of most other white groups.

Moreover, many of the ‘people of color’ who are now benefiting from “affirmative action” programs are recent immigrants from Asia, Latin America and Africa. But these people, Webb observes,

did not suffer discrimination from our government, and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs. The same cannot be said, [however], of many hard-working white Americans, including those whose roots in America go back more than 200 years.

Webb cites “a recent NORC Social Survey of white adults born after World War II, [which] showed

that in the years 1980-2000, only 18.4% of white Baptists and 21.8% of Irish Protestants—the principal ethnic group that settled the South—had obtained college degrees, compared to a national average of 30.1%, a Jewish average of 73.3%, and an average among those of Chinese and Indian descent of 61.9%.

At a time when racial concerns loom large in American politics, Webb’s new entry into the debate has special resonance. It was only last year, after all, that the Supreme Court ruled (in Ricci v. DeStefano) that municipalities cannot discriminate against white firefighters.

That decision was heartening for advocates of equal rights and equal opportunity; however, it was decided by a sadly and scarily narrow 5-4 majority. And court observers say that new racial preference cases lie ahead.

Then, too, a new study by two Princeton University sociologists shows that at America’s most elite colleges and universities, Asians, white ethnics and poor, rural whites suffer serious discrimination.

Indeed, according to Princeton Professor Russell K. Nieli, “lower-class whites prove to be all-around losers” at the elite schools. They rarely gain admittance.

Upper-middle-class white students with similar qualifications are three times as likely to get in, while lower-class black and Hispanic students are eight to 10 times more likely to get in. Yet, as Nieli points out: “an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of those categorized as black are Afro-Caribbean or African immigrants, or the children of such immigrants,” who never suffered segregation or Jim Crow.

Racial preferences violate our basic sense of fairness and run afoul of America’s promise of equal rights and equal opportunity. They also engender understandable anger and bitterness in those who have been wronged and discriminated against.

For these reasons, Webb calls for an end to “government-directed diversity programs… Nondiscrimination laws,” he writes,

should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.

Of course, the idea of applying the law fairly and impartially, without regard to skin color, ought to be unobjectionable and noncontroversial. Sadly, though, it is not. That’s because an entire racial spoils system and “diversity” industry have emerged in the past quarter-century; and these racial bean counters don’t want to lose their power, privileges and funding.

But a multiethnic nation in which people hail from all corners of the globe, and in which minorities actually outnumber whites (as they do in California), cannot long sustain a legal system that tips the scales of justice in favor of certain classes of people. Republicans, however, are loathe to speak out on this issue, let alone address it legislatively, because they fear being smeared as racists.

That’s why having James Webb in the Senate can be so helpful. As a Democrat, he has much greater leeway than just about any Republican to speak out against racial preferences and the racial spoils system; and he has shown a real willingness to do just that. Having him out front on this issue can help to embolden the Republicans, while also giving the GOP political cover to do the right thing.

“Sometimes party loyalty demands too much,” President Kennedy famously said. In Virginia’s 2012 Senate election, that may well be true for many Republicans, who decide that, in the grand scheme of things, having a Democrat like Webb in the Senate will help the GOP and the country.

You can follow John Guardiano on Twitter: @JohnRGuardiano