In Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, Thomas Sowell quotes a politician from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh who, in the course of demanding preferences based on caste for his constituents, addressed the argument that it was unfair to prefer them over members of other castes with superior qualifications:
Yes it is true that they are also better qualified for many of the jobs than we are. Maybe they are better qualified but why is merit so important? We can have some inefficiency. That will be necessary if our people are to get jobs. Are we not entitled to jobs just because we are not as qualified?
At the time when Mr. Sowell wrote, just after the turn of the millennium, that wasn’t, as he shows, an uncommon opinion among affirmative action apostles in the countries that he surveyed outside the U.S. (India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Malaysia). In the United States, however, mainstream proponents like William Bowen and Derek Bok were arguing that the “beneficiaries” of affirmative action were just as qualified as the people they displaced.
The contemporary, “woke” version of affirmative action is more like the overseas version, or so it appears from nascent trends in the divergent areas of classical music and the U.S. Armed Forces.
For a long time (since the 1970’s, in fact), orchestras have commonly conducted “blind auditions” of performers whom they are considering hiring. That practice has led to a great increase in female and Asian musicians in major orchestras, but there hasn’t been much change in the black and Hispanic percentages. The predictable people regard the latter as “problematic”, so there is now a movement – so far only incipient but doubtless with a great future before it – for change. The New York Times’s music critic last year demanded, “To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions.” The subhead was explicit about the reason: “If ensembles are to reflect the communities they serve, the audition process should take into account race, gender and other factors.” That still leaves a sliver of room for the quality of the performance, I suppose.
In July 2020, the Secretary of Defense issued an order “prohibiting the use of photographs for promotion boards and selection processes pertaining to assignment, training, education and command”. This action came, the calendrically literate will observe, during the “white supremacist” Trump Administration. Nonetheless, Secretary Esper sounded pretty woke (not that you’re ever woke enough):
In a series of Twitter posts, Esper said that all commands should work to eliminate “unconscious bias” among service members through frank and open discussions.
Prejudice and bias in the ranks are not always transparent, he said in urging commands to increase the frequency of workplace and equal opportunity surveys to identify areas for improvement.
Now we have a new, “anti-racist” Administration, and the Chief of Naval Personnel isn’t happy with keeping race out of account in promotion decisions. From Stars & Stripes last week:
The Navy could include service photos in promotion packages again after data suggested minorities are less likely to be selected blindly in some situations by promotion review boards, the service’s chief of personnel said Tuesday.
Diversity among leadership dropped after photos were removed last year from Navy promotion packages, Vice Adm. John Nowell said during a panel discussion on diversity and inclusion at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference.
“I think we should consider reinstating photos in selection boards,” he said. “We look at, for instance, the one-star board over the last five years, and we can show you where, as you look at diversity, it went down with photos removed.”
Admiral Nowell has an “interesting” definition of “meritocracy”, too:
“It's a meritocracy, we're only going to pick the best of the best, but we're very clear with our language to boards that we want them to consider diversity across all areas,” he said. “Therefore ... I think having a clear picture just makes it easier.”
Are want-to-be opera singers and naval officers not entitled to jobs just because they are not as qualified?
Further reading: Heather Mac Donald, “Classical Music’s Suicide Pact” (Part 1) (Part 2)”
Heather Mac Donald, “Can opera survive the culture wars?”
Comments