NileValleyPeoples: "Affirmative action" as a term appears in the 1930s giving remedies to white union workers discriminated against by employers due to union activity or membership

Court ordered remedies...

The commentary below is no brief in support of AA quotas but an examination of the standard propaganda narrative in some quarters- namely that remedies for discriminatory treatment are something given or created "specially for blacks," and/or dreamed up by reputed "liberals" to "oppress white people." But in fact, said "oppressed white people" were long enjoying court remedies for discriminatory treatment in employment. Nothing "special" was "given" to black people. Even conservative OPPONENT of AA quotas Thomas Sowell notes that "affirmative action" is a term from the 1930s acting in favor of white union members who were discriminated against by employers because they were union members. White unionists thus treated received enforcement remedies by the courts, against such treatments, not mere toothless "cease and desist" orders. QUOTE Per Sowell:

"The general principle behind "affirmative action" is that a court order to "cease and desist" from some discriminatory practice may not be sufficient to undo the harm already done, or even to prevent additional harm as the result of a pattern of events set in motion by the prior illegal activity. This general principle goes back much further than the civil-rights legislation of the 1960's, and extends well beyond questions involving ethnic minorities or women. In 1935, the Wagner Act prescribed "affirmative action" as well as "cease and desist" remedies against employers whose anti-union activities had violated the law. Thus, in the landmark Jones and Laughlin Steel case which established the constitutionality of the Act, the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company not only to stop discriminating against those of its employees who were union members, but also to post notices to that effect in conspicuous places and to reinstate unlawfully discharged workers, with back pay. Had the company merely been ordered to "cease and desist" from economic (and physical) retaliation against union members,the future effect of its past intimidation would have continued to inhibit the free-choice elections guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act.

Racial discrimination is another obvious area where merely to "cease and desist" is not enough. If a firm has engaged in racial discrimination for years, and has an all-white work force as a result, then simply to stop explicit discrimination will mean little as long as the firm continues to hire by word-of-mouth referrals to its current employees' friends and relatives. (Many firms hire in just this way, regardless of their racial policies.) Clearly, the area of racial discrimination is one in which positive or affirmative steps of some kind seem reasonable-which is not to say that the particular policies actually followed make sense."
--Sowell, Thomas (1975) Affirmative Action Reconsidered. The Public Interest 3, pg 48-65

Sowell opposes race quotas but candidly holds that affirmative outreach steps in recruitment, promotion etc are reasonable. A company that has long denied its qualified black employees promotion can take such steps as steadily moving up said employees over time without imposing mandatory race quotas where the unqualified move up simply because of their race. He also candidly notes that court remedies to protect or compensate those directly damaged are something long enjoyed by white workers. There nothing new, but have been around since the 1930s for whites.

But the standard propaganda narrative skips over this history and in high dudgeon denounces reputed "special treatment" allegedly "given" to blacks. Why aren't the remedies above a bad thing when benefiting white unionists, but become a "problem" only when a black man shows up wanting a piece of the action?

While white union workers were enjoying affirmative action protections, they bitterly opposed blacks getting all but the most menial jobs- even shutting down war production with strikes during WW2 to block and harass black people.

For example, in 1944 8000 white transit workers in Philadelphia when on strike to protest the hiring of 8 blacks as motormen and conductors. Apparently the blacks were not supposed to be employed in those "reserved" positions. Alarmed that war production was suffering the federal government brought in troops to run streetcars, trolleys and buses. Similar hate strikes occurred in Detroit, Portland and elsewhere. Source: Timothy N. Thurber - 2013. Republicans and Race: The Gop's Frayed Relationship With African Americans, 1945-1974.
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Strikes designed to block and intimidate black workers- QUOTE:

"Many [strikes] were based on racism as whites objected to African Americans getting new jobs in defense plants. Perhaps the most shameful occurred in Baltimore, where black employees rose from 2 percent to 29 percent at a Western Electric plant in the first two years of the war.. 'twenty-two white women walked off their after one black woman was transferred into their formally all white department.' Their objection focused on integrated toilet facilities which previously had been segregated by race. When the War Labor Board ruled in favor of integration, 'about 70 percent of the company's workers' struck- a percentage that included almost all white workers both men and women.. Army troops took over the company for the first three months of 1944 -until the company gave into the white workers and re-segregated restrooms."
-- Doris Weatherford 2009, American women during World War 2: An Encyclopedia. pg 436

Sowell's words still ring true today as regards African-Americans as they did 30 years ago- that black progress is not due to any "affirmative action" given by white people. QUOTE:

"During the 1960"s-before "affirmative action"-black incomes in the United States rose at a higher rate than white incomes. So too did the proportion of blacks in college and in skilled and professional occupations-and along with this came a faster decline in the proportion of black families below the poverty line or living in substandard housing. When people ask why blacks cannot pull themselves up the way other oppressed minorities did in the past, many white liberals and black "spokesmen" fall right into the trap and rush in to offer sociological "explanations." But there is nothing to explain. The fact is that blacks have pulled themselves up-from further down, against stronger opposition-and show every indication of continuing to advance. While this advance is the product of generations of struggle, it accelerated at an unprecedented pace in the 1960"s, once the worst forms of discrimination had been outlawed and stigmatized. Black income as a percentage of white income reached its peak in 1970-the year before numerical "goals and timetables."

References:
Sowell, Thomas (1975) Affirmative Action Reconsidered. The Public Interest 3, pg 48-65

the white hookup...

Likewise Sowell notes in his 1981 book "Knowledge and Decisions" that mere "cease and desist" approaches mean little when whites fill most job openings without advertising- passing "the white word" mostly to other whites who subsequently "get the hookup." No negroes need apply because they do not even know the jobs exist. The white network has everything sown up, for white benefit.Of course even with formal advertising, whites asily find ways to freeze out duskier applicants. They do not even have to show their face-employers have been shown to dismiss ir downgrade applications that have "black sounding" names. Here's Sowell:

"The phrase "affirmative action" is ambiguous. It refers both to a general approach and to highly specific policies. The general approach is that to "cease and desist" from some harmful activity may be insufficient to undo the harm already done, or even to prevent additional harm in the future from a pattern of events set in motion in the past. This idea antedates the civil rights issues of the 1960s. The 1935 Wagner Act prescribed that "affirmative action"6' be taken by employers found guilty of intimidating unionized employees-for example, posting notices of changed policies and/or reinstating discharged workers with back pay.62

Racial discrimination is another area where simply to cease and desist would not prevent future harm from past actions. The widespread practice of hiring new employees by word-of-mouth referrals from existing employees means that a racially discriminatory employer with an all-white labor force is likely to continue having an all-white labor force long after he ceases discriminating, because he will be hiring the relatives and friends of incumbent employees.

Opponents of racial discrimination therefore urged that "affirmative action" be taken to break up or supersede hiring patterns and practices which left racial or ethnic minorities largely outside the usual hiring channels. This might include advertising in newspapers or in broadcast media more likely to reach minority workers, or a variety of other ways of creating equalized access to apply for employment, college admissions, etc."
--Sowell, 1981. Knowledge and Decisions

Sowell on black gains during the civil rights era

"The steady rise in black incomes, occupations, and education and declines in disease and mortality occurred while the rest of the American population was improving in all these respects as well. "Gaps" remained and ratios showed no great change, despite widespread progress. The income of nonwhite families was 53 percent of the income of white families in 1948 and was the same percentage fifteen years later, although both incomes had risen more than 50 percent in real terms, even allowing for inflation.330 Infant mortality rates declined by about a third, for both blacks and whites, from 1950 to 1970,331 but the black-white ratio or "gap" did not change greatly. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, there were a number of areas in which blacks not only rose, but rose at a faster rate than whites. Between 1961 and 1971, white family income rose by 31 percent, while black family income rose by 55 percent.332 The proportion of college-age young people who actually enrolled in college remained the same for whites between 1965 and 1972, but the proportion among blacks nearly doubled.333 The number of whites in professional-level occupations increased by about one-fifth between 1960 and 1972, while the number of blacks in such occupations nearly doubled.334 The number of black foremen, craftsmen, and policmen more than doubled, and the number of black engineers tripled.335 The number of blacks in Congress doubled between 1964 and 1972. So did the number of blacks in state legislatures across the country. In the South, the number of blacks in state legislatures more than quadrupled.336

The geographic distribution of blacks distorts national statistical comparisons. Despite more than half a century of massive migration, just over one-half of all American Negroes still live in the South—a region of generally lower money income and lower living costs for both blacks and whites. Less than a third of whites live in the South.337 Black families living outside the South earn more than 40 percent higher incomes than black families within the South.338 Blacks in New York State earn more than twice as much as blacks in Mississippi.339 The geographic distribution of the population affects both black-white comparisons and comparisons with other ethnic groups. Age differences between groups add further distortions. While gross differences between blacks and whites remain large nationally, differences between blacks and whites of the same age have narrowed remarkably, especially outside the South. Among young married couples (under 35) living outside the South, blacks had 78 percent of white income in 1959 and 93 percent in 1971. When both husband and wife worked in both races, black couples earned 5 percent more than white couples in 1971340 Nationally, Puerto Rican families earned slightly more than black families in 1969,341 but black families living outside the South earned more than Puerto Rican families, almost all of whom live outside the South.342 Even the substantial income advantage of Mexican Americans over blacks is a geographic phenomenon. Although Mexican-American families earned higher incomes than black families nationally in 1970,343 black families in all regions other than the South had incomes above the national average for Mexican-American families.344"

--Thomas Sowell 1981. Ethnic America pp 220-222

Some whites realized how unfairly blacks were treated but said little publicly lest they be penalized. Below white supervisors admit black candidates were superior, but they were rejected or passed over in favor of lesser qualified or productive whites.

"A few white employees acknowledged this fact themselves. In a 1948 letter to the NAACP, a Washington, DC federal employee named Phyllis Zeughauser admitted that she was “annoyed with the goings on in my office” since a heavily credentialed and excellent black female operator filled the order for a Comptometer Operator, but “because of her color, she was not hired.” Two weeks later, a white woman was sent up for the same position “and the supervisor in charge was told that the second person, a white girl, was not as good as the first one, but nevertheless, the latter was hired for the position.” Zeughauser revealed that incidents “similar to this one have been happening for quite sometime. In fact, out of at least 100 employees on my particular floor, there is only one Negro person employed.” Yet, she was reluctant about sacrificing her own career for an anti-racist cause: “[n]aturally, because of my position here, I would rather that my name is not used.”74

--Frederick Gooding Jr. 2013. AMERICAN DREAM DEFERRED:BLACK FEDERAL WORKERS IN WASHINGTON,D.C. 1941-1981. Doctoral Thesis. Published 2013. Georgetown University

How "petty Jim Crow" was designed to demonize blacks and hinder their economic advancement. Various segregationist restrictions (more subtle in the North) were not merely a matter of "personal inconvenience" as some libertarians try to make out as part of the poo poo strategy. They were calibrated to SUPPRESS black economic opportunity by creating such inconvenience that employers would be discouraged from hiring blacks, particularly in key or growing industries. As one encyclopedia notes- QUOTE:

"As the South became increasingly industrialized, segregation helped keep blacks economically marginalized. South Carolina provided fines of $100 and up to thirty days imprisonment at hard labor for textile manufacturers or their officials that failed to follow elaborate rules for racial separations. The law set out in great detail that no company engaged in textile or cotton manufacturing—the most important industry in the state—could allow members of different races to work together within the same room, to use the same doors of entrance and exit at the same time, to use and occupy the same pay ticket windows or doors for paying its employees at the same time, to use the same stairway and windows at the same time, or to use at any time the same lavatories, toilets, drinking-water buckets, pails, cups, dippers, or glasses. Other states had similar rules. Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas required that mine owners provide both separate shower facilities and separate clothing lockers for workers when they emerged from underground. "

"These laws did more than just humiliate blacks and remind them of their inferior legal status. The laws also prevented them from advancing in their jobs or sometimes even from getting jobs in the first place. Separate facilities for blacks meant that factory owners would have to invest more money in their mills, mines, and factories. Where possible, it made greater economic sense simply to hire only whites, leaving blacks outside the growing industrial job market."
--Paul Finkelman ed. 2009. Encyclopedia of African American History: Laws and Legislation p. 145

Contrary to popular notions, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not "fix the negro problem." The Act's initial impact was limited. For example, its employment discrimination provisions excluded 40% of the workforce. Public institutions still continued to discriminate and even private entities dragged their feet in public accommodations. It took years of follow-up struggle, lawsuits and arm twisting to bring about meaningful ENFORCEMENT. It was no "quick fix" though many would have likened it to remain primarily a paper tiger without enforcement teeth. QUOTE:

"The Civil Rights Act was a major achievement, yet there were problems. Title VII was phased in slowly, meaning that large businesses with more than 100 employees were affected in 1965, but employers with 25 workers did not have to stop discriminating until 1968. Moreover, less than 10 percent of companies in the nation hired more than 25 workers; those large corporations employed about 40 percent of the workforce, meaning that the act did not affect about 60 percent of the workers. The seniority clause meant that during the first recession the last hired would be the first fired, most of whom were minorities, and the employer’s right to hire and promote based on tests hurt all minorities, since their educational skills were generally much weaker than the average white applicant.

Title IV, which demanded public school desegregation, often was not enforced by local school boards, nor was Title VI, which banned the use of federal funds for public projects or institutions that discriminated. The Civil Rights Commission discovered that in the South the Agriculture Department had a totally segregated extension program, and that thousands of hospitals, clinics, and welfare programs continued to discriminate, either by placing blacks on separate floors or by refusing to admit African Americans. All these facts increased black frustration: The Civil Rights Act had passed, but for the next four years when blacks applied for many jobs they were turned away, or couldn’t pass the skill test, or they remained in segregated schools, all which naturally embittered them—and incited some to riot during those long, hot summers from 1965 to 1968."
--FROM: Terry AndErson. 2004. The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action. p 83-84

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NileValleyPeoples

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

"Affirmative action" as a term appears in the 1930s giving remedies to white union workers discriminated against by employers due to union activity or membership

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