The College Fix

OPINION

Lance Gentry is a professor of marketing at the University of Mary Washington’s College of Business. Inspired by President Donald Trump’s new executive order rescinding President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 order establishing federal race-based hiring mandates, Gentry has penned a powerful piece sharing his personal journey as a white man and professor in the age of affirmative action.

Gentry has given The College Fix permission to republish his essay in full. It’s his personal opinion and does not reflect the views of his employer.

Affirmative action (as enacted by President Johnson with Executive Order 11246 in 1965) has existed throughout my entire life. I have been denied scholarships and even admission to graduate school while those with lower GPAs and test scores obtained them because of their sex and the color of their skin.

Despite that, God has blessed me beyond reason, and I had the good fortune to attend very good schools and work with some great organizations. Throughout my career, I have served on countless search committees at two Fortune 500 firms and three state universities, and not once did we hire a white male if a minority or a woman had applied for the job who came even close to the qualifications of white male applicants. We only hired a white male if he was overwhelmingly the best available candidate out of our pool.

Recently (the last decade or so), human resources at my university would not even let us start interviewing until our candidate pool met their subjective requirements for diversity (which were always based on skin color, gender, nationality, and even sexual orientation, but never intellectual diversity). Further, we are discouraged (even prohibited) from actually ranking the candidates, so those higher up can pick who they want from a list of qualified candidates. These are all practices designed to meet affirmative action goals while technically staying within the law when it comes to discrimination.

These affirmative action policies are not limited to employment. Many universities, including my own, still publicize programs aimed at people based on the color of their skin (that is, whites are discouraged from applying).

As a white male, the only white privilege that I have experienced in my life has been the knowledge that when I was hired for a position, or admitted into a program, I clearly met or exceeded expectations. I knew I was hired because of my skills and background, not because I filled a check box. Now this indeed is a privilege; everyone should have the confidence that comes from knowing they were the best option when selected.

As someone who was taught, and inspired by, Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “I look forward to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” affirmative action has always struck me as another form of racism. It also has done immense harm to minorities. As both a student and a professor, I have witnessed many bright students, who would have thrived at a school appropriate for their merits, fail when admitted to programs designed around those with higher abilities.

Further, affirmative action tarnished the results of women and minorities who met the requirements of prestigious programs. As grade inflation became more prevalent, partially because affirmative action policies admitted those who could not cut it unless standards were lowered, employers could not differentiate between the women and minorities who were just as qualified as the white male graduates and the minorities who only were there due to affirmative action. I know many brilliant women and minorities who would have thrived without affirmative action, and it has been a shame that people doubted their competence because unqualified women and minorities were also admitted to the same programs as the qualified ones.

Not only did President Trump pass an executive order to eliminate DEI from the federal government; with his Executive Order 11246, he revoked President’s Johnson’s Executive Order 11246, eliminating at least one of the foundations of affirmative action. It remains to be seen if the United States will completely eliminate it and other discriminatory hiring practices. However, it is a great step and I’m more optimistic about seeing MLK’s dream come true than I have been in decades.

Hopefully we’ll all be judged on our merits, skills, and character instead of the color of our skin, nationality, sex, ethnicity, etc.

MORE: Meet the Poster Child for ‘White Privilege’ – Then Have Your Mind Blown

IMAGE: Lance Gentry

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