When Affirmative Action Was White

The Social Security Act of 1935, the Wagner Act of 1935, the GI Bill of 1944, and other New Deal & Fair Deal legislation were all implemented not by a central federal government, but by local governments. Some of these bills intentionally left out protections for specific jobs that were primarily being done by black people (farm workers & maids, specifically) As such, these bills were intentionally implemented to “maintain the racial order” of Jim Crow. It was affirmative action for the benefit of white people.

These bills led to the greatest transference of wealth to the working class in US history and created the “middle class” as we colloquially understand it. However, the overwhelming majority of black people were left out of this transference. This has COMPOUNDED over the generations. Many white families can draw a direct line from these bills to their current material conditions. This has led to a widening of the racial wealth gap.

The purpose of Affirmative Action as implemented today is to rectify the federally mandated historical injustices of the Jim Crow era. It is used to right particular past wrongs. “Properly tailored and bounded in time, they can help transcend, once and for all, not only the practice of racism but its enduring legacies.”
I think every person reading this can agree with me in saying that we should craft our society where affirmative action is not necessary to achieve economic equality among races, but we have not achieved that ideal world. We could do it in a generation. We could eliminate poverty for all and have a much more egalitarian society. But that would require a lot more work than past generations were willing to push for. I hope you will join me in trying to achieve that ideal society.

This book chronicles, in a matter-of-fact way, the history of these programs and how they were INTENTIONALLY crafted to prevent racial equality. It provides the necessary historical context to understand why affirmative action is still needed today. It fits in well as a bridge between “The Souls of Black Folk” (1903) by W.E.B. Du Bois, which further elaborates on the failure of reconstruction, and “How to be an Anti-Racist” (2019) by Ibram X. Kendi, which elaborates on how to craft a more egalitarian society.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the history of race in the US and the history of affirmative action.