Larry Gossett says the state should restore affirmative action in contracts and college admissions. But he doesn’t provide an exit strategy for this allegedly temporary program. He never details the objective criteria that will be used to determine whether it succeeded and thus should end.
Will it be when the percentage of minorities in contracts and college equals their percentage in the state population? If so, what if, after 20 years of this policy, the percentage of minority students in contracts and college is higher than the percentage in the state population? Will the state suddenly reverse the reverse discrimination and start giving less-qualified whites the nod over minorities?
Playing such a pingpong game in a never-ending search for the perfect statistical mirror is inane. Intentionally discriminating is a sticky business. Martin Luther King Jr. had a better idea: Don’t judge people by the color of their skin.
Matthew Barry, Issaquah