Letter from an affirmative action hire

In a letter to USA Today, a black physician by the name of Dee Banks offers a strikingly illogical apologia for affirmative action. First, Dr. Banks (who for the sake of convenience I’m assuming is a man) acknowledges having benefited in his career from affirmative action, by which he presumably means that he was admitted to medical school and hired for positions that he would not have been admitted to or hired for on the strength of his academic qualifications had he been white. But then he complains that he and other experienced black doctors are often bypassed by patients and other doctors in favor of white doctors, even those with less experience. “It’s assumed that [the black doctors] are less qualified merely because of the color of their skin and nothing else.”

The obvious problem here is that Dr. Banks has already let on that he, and presumably his black colleagues, were advanced in their career at least partly on the basis of their skin color. So isn’t it logical and natural for people to assume that these black doctors are less qualified than doctors who were not advanced on the basis of their skin color? For Banks, the answer to that question is No. In his mind, not only is the reluctance of patients and doctors to use the services of black doctors not caused by the racial preferences that were given to those doctors, the reluctance justifies the racial preferences. “[T]here always will be a color barrier,” he writes. “This is why affirmative action selects those individuals for medical schools, law schools and graduate schools who would not be given a chance to compete otherwise.”

In other words, Banks has no objection to black doctors being given a leg up because of their race, but when people prefer not to use those same black doctors, he assumes it’s because of racial prejudice, which he believes can only be overcome by yet more racially based promotions for blacks. It never occurs to him that the racially based promotion by itself creates the “racial prejudice” against its beneficiaries that he finds so objectionable.

Clearly, affirmative action has effected in the souls of millions of Americans a profound intellectual and moral corruption. There is no solution, and there can be no solution, but to pull the whole rotten system up by the roots. That means abandoning, not just explicit racial preferences as at the University of Michigan, but the whole pursuit of racial proportionality as a societal goal. Needless to say, this is something that President Bush and the Republicans are unwilling even to contemplate, much less to attempt.

Here’s Dr. Banks’s letter:

Playing field remains unlevel
USA Today

As a physician who benefited from affirmative action, I feel compelled to respond to the comments on diversity and affirmative action by Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Sterling, Va. (“Diversity is overhyped,” Opposing View, Affirmative action debate, Tuesday). I calmly read through his argument until his last sentence: “Finally, would you choose as your surgeon someone other than the most qualified?” Unfortunately, despite my having years of experience and having been the director of my division, patients will often direct their questions to the young white medical student or resident standing next to me. Also, other physicians will send their referrals to less-qualified physicians just out of training. I have seen African-American cardiovascular surgeons and neurosurgeons who have impeccable credentials and training passed over for referrals. It’s assumed that they are less qualified merely because of the color of their skin and nothing else. I have proved myself as a competent physician in my field. However, there always will be a color barrier. This is why affirmative action selects those individuals for medical schools, law schools and graduate schools who would not be given a chance to compete otherwise.

Dee Banks, M.D.
Pittsburgh

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 03, 2003 01:54 AM | Send