Fine: Public feelings on affirmative action may affect its future

If the University loses the affirmative action lawsuits against the University's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and the Law School, it and institutions with similar policies may be legally bared from actively attempting to enroll racially diverse student bodies.

Last night, Prof. Michelle Fine of the City University of New York spoke to this issue in a speech she titled, "Before the Bleach Gets Us All: Our National Retreat from Affirmative Action."

Fine, who has been an expert witness in lawsuits involving equity in education and done research across the nation, addressed what she distinguished as three categories of public sentiment nationwide: hostility, neutrality and productivity.

In her speech, Fine said the claim of neutrality is dangerous. "No-one is neutral, remaining neutral simply reproduces what currently is," she said.

Fine said, "There is a growing category of people to be seen as entitled and a growing category of those to be seen as discardable."

Fine, referring specifically to universities and other schools, noted after her speech, "If a resource is valuable only because it is withheld from someone, that is something that worries me."

Rackham Graduate School Dean Earl Lewis, commenting on when he first felt the affects of being a minority, said after the talk, "This speech should encourage students to think about the lives they live, and the structures that shape their lives."

Lewis, who is also Chair of the Dialogues on Diversity Institute for Research on Women and Gender - which hosted the speech - said he challenged students to, "question what it means to be neutral," and to wonder, "if it is an illusion that makes us comfortable."

Fine stressed the need for educators to involve themselves, pointing to the danger of the status quo.

Fine said the negative image applied to many of those who support affirmative action programs is a problem.

"It is not dangerous to have no affirmative action," she said, referring to those who chose to remain apolitical. "It is dangerous to declare the need for affirmative action."

Fine told a story of an encounter between three students at high school in Montclair, N.J., a story she said displays the troubles faced by growing up in America today.

During a discussion in a ninth grade English class in the high school, a black female student said she sometimes wished she was white - not because she likes the skin color, but because she wanted to have two nice cars and a nice house. In response, a white male student in the class said that if she worked hard, she could have what he had. And in response to this, a Latino student said that he worked hard every day, and he did not have what the other student had.

Students at the speech said their views on affirmative action were only bolstered by Fine's speech.

"I'm a minority, and I see affirmative action as necessary," said Zohra Cherif, a local high school student who attended Fine's speech.

03-25-99