Countering White Male Top 10% Affirmative Action
The continuing advances of elite white males1 requires action. They live and procreate in a closed loop of social, educational, and political advantages and protections. Wealth flows to them behind the uniformed doormen of the Upper East Side and the hedges of the Hamptons(or their equivalents in every major city). They justify their status with the politics of free market capitalism, the rugged risk-takers driving the economy forward. They reassure themselves that they are the creme de la creme of the Darwinian meritocracy of the market.
The success of this class of elite white males in acquiring wealth is overwhelming and accelerating. 2These are undeniable truths. So is the presence of the closed loop of affirmative action that cossets them from before birth to long after their deaths as they exercise their greed and power through legal trusts enriching their heirs. Even in death, they grease the way for their grandchildren to vast advantages in education and jobs.
Their talk of meritocracy and victories in the competitive tumult of the free market is just self-serving, probably even self-deceptive, nonsense. However, we will not spend time here unraveling why this is so. Rather, let’s turn to what can be done to change this system and be clear this is a system.
Women constitute 51% of the population. Yet they hold only 19% of the seats in Congress and 23% of the Senate. At the state level, women hold 25% of the seats in state legislatures. In the corporate world, the CEOs of the Fortune 500 are 94% white males. African American men hold 2% of the seats with women holding the balance of 4%. The ranks of Fortune 500 Board of Directors seats held by women is 27%, an actual decline from the high of 29% in 2012.
It is time to take a principled stand that our leading government and economic institutions should be headed by a mix of people that reflects the population as a whole. Obviously, there are many minority groups who also suffer at the hands of white male affirmative action. But, due to their majority numerical status women have a far better chance of overturning this system and so we focus here on them.
The Republican and Democratic parties can lead the way by insisting that their delegations, party officials, and staff achieve a 51-49 female-male ratio in short order. Two four-year election cycles would be a good target. By 2024 both parties need to achieve this ratio from top to bottom at local, county, state and national party meetings. Organizations that fail to meet this objective will be disqualified from participation.
