 |
| Lambeth Town Hall - usually thought of as a bastion of equality |
Lambeth Council is in a spot of bother. Some of its employees have alleged – apparently with justification – that black people who work for what was always considered one of the most right-on and progressive councils are permanently stuck in low-grade jobs while the top posts go to white workers, who enjoy all the perks and privileges that go with higher-level management positions. In the meantime an Asian-American called Michael Wang is suing some elite colleges which did not offer him a place but instead made offers to African-Americans with significantly worse grades. To put it crudely, black-skinned Americans were benefiting from quotas while yellow-skinned ones were not. Wang’s case may well torpedo the whole project of affirmative action, which has been challenged for some time by those who are losing out from it.
This all raises the question of how far fifty-fifty equality can go. This is my name for a phenomenon which particularly applies to women who complain about under-representation in art galleries and board rooms. It highlights the difference between equality of opportunity – everyone being given a fair shot at achieving success regardless of their skin colour or gender – and equality of reward in which places at elite institutions and jobs are handed out in a way that reflects the proportions which exist in society. Hence fifty-fifty, which reflects gender ratios, although things would obviously be different when it comes to race.
Equality of reward can only go so far. In Silicon Valley, the great majority of top positions are held by men – many of them of Asian origin – for the simple reason that they seem to be better at thinking up schemes which people are prepared to pay good money for. Things move so fast in the world of computer technology that there is simply no time to worry about gender and racial balances. Anyone who spends too much time worrying about them will be left behind in the race to invent the latest app. Incidentally, the undoubtedly right wing Steve Bannon has complained about the high proportion of Asian people in computer companies, although I doubt he was thinking of the rights of African-Americans when he did so.
Equality of reward only works in one direction. Feminists never complain that women are vastly under-represented in the bad things in life. In prisons, for example, there are very few female inmates, simply because men commit the vast majority of murders and robberies and virtually all rapes. The equality of reward feminist seems to be saying that they are entitled to half of the good stuff in life by right but are quite happy for men to dominate the bad stuff on merit - or demerit.
On the subject of incarceration, one of the most well-known and demining statistics of our time says that an African-American man is more likely to go to prison than to university. This is not, I hasten to add, because they are inherently worse people than whites, but because they have been dealt a worse hand in life. If you have two pairs you will never – or very rarely – beat someone who is holding a full house. Equality of reward in the form of affirmative action was an attempt to redress this imbalance but, when it comes to handing out a prison sentence, the severity of the crime should always decide the type of punishment. (Again this does not deny that many justice systems are inherently racist in the way they charge and condemn black people.)
My preference is instinctively for equality of opportunity and I often use the example of black footballers to support it. I can remember the days when they were routinely booed by the crowds. I should have walked out and complained but, to my shame, I never did. These players had to endure far worse and more blatant discrimination than female artists or aspiring intellectuals of any colour and yet, within a generation, they have shown that they can play as well as or better than their white counterparts and now make up a healthy minority and often a majority, of most successful teams. Booing black footballers today would be absurd - as well as offensive. Sports teams are the ultimate meritocracies and people of colour have shown that they can compete as equals in them without having to rely on quotas to achieve parity with whites.
I say sports teams are meritocracies but the same cannot be said of sports clubs where black faces are still rare in the boardrooms and on the coaching benches. In these places, more subtle pressures are brought to bear and old-fashioned racism still triumphs over meritocracy in what are laughably called the ‘upper’ levels of the game. There might be an argument for at least exposing a lack of equality of reward in these cases.
I think you have to accept that some people will tend do better at certain things in life. Men tend to be more successful entrepreneurs and inventors probably because they like to fiddle with things (and not only parts of their anatomy). Women tend to be better at looking after young children because men often do not have the patience to do so. It is important to distinguish between a generalisation and an assumption here. There are plenty of successful women entrepreneurs and some men who are perfectly competent at looking after little children. You should never assume that a gender or a skin colour absolutely determines your role in life but it will inevitably have some effect on it. Quotas can only go so far to counteract this.
Edwin Lerner
____________
For more on the Lambeth case go to: theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/01/staff-accuse-lambeth-council-of-institutional-racism
An article on Asian Americans and affirmative action can be found at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/the-rise-and-fall-of-affirmative-action
My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
