SWW ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION  ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONScott W. Williams, 7/4/89, revised 12/1/95, and 5/10/96.Note: A large percentage of the 1989 version of this document appeared, more that 18 months after its submission, as a 1991 ViewPoint article in the Buffalo News. The version below, revised 5/10/96, appears in Topological Commentary volume 1 # 2 of TopCom of the web journal Topology Atlas. During the past week or so, I have heard/seen/read news mediadiscussions on affirmative action. From a naive black Universityof Michigan law student to a psychologically unbalanced blackUniversity of California at San Diego English Professor, fromunemployed white blue-collar workers to white "liberal"newspaper columnists, many individuals are expressing whys orwhy nots of continuing an affirmative action policy. It seems tome that each side's comments fall on the other's deaf ears. Andas absurdities fly on both sides of the fence, I find that myAfrican American and Algonquin Indian heritage prevents me fromsilence. Thus, I reveal below a case history of my ownexperience with affirmative action, and a little bit more. Where would I be if the Russians hadn't beaten us in the "spacerace"? In the aftermath of Sputnik, even a few black collegeswere given government money to teach promising high schoolstudents. So as an eleventh grader in 1959, I had theopportunity to learn some real mathematics rather than thepabulum fed in the Baltimore public schools. My career slowed in1964 when fellow workers at an IBM research center responded tothe Harlem riots by angrily shouting at me questions like, "Whatdo you people want?" Finding answers forced me to vigorousactivity within the civil rights movement. After a 1969 LehighUniversity Ph.D., I co-founded the first association of minoritymathematicians. It is curious that my 1964 graduate schoolapplication to Syracuse University was responded to with anapplication to undergraduate school, and my 1969 job applicationto the same institution was responded to with an offer to dograduate work. I came to State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNYAB) in1971 with little more than a Penn State University postdoc on myhips, and a thanks to the aggressive affirmative action programthat was my "pot 'o gold", for not all PhDs are equal in theeyes of the employer. My vague realization, that leadership incivil rights and anti-war organizations must flee through theback door in order for mathematical research to enter my bed wasrewarded two years later when intense departmental scrutiny ledSUNYAB gave me my first regular non-affirmative action position. I had some luck, in my early years at SUNYAB. Thoughtfulcolleagues warned me that, despite public protestations to thecontrary, community involvement, university committees, anddedicated teaching counted little for tenure, the academic's dayof recognition, at the school aspiring to be the "Berkeley ofthe East". Indeed the university was rife with examples - aPuerto Rican engineer, a black economist - count among the"disappeared". Very few members of the 40 or so 1973 minorityfaculty association remained at SUNYAB in 1989 Sitting in the Madison Wisconsin home of a senior leader in myfield of mathematics, I was told that her 1976 letter in supportof my tenure case was held responsible, in part, for myuniversity's negative tenure decision. It seems that the SUNYABevaluators saw red with the phrase "... and he is also BLACK..."which followed the sentence "He is one of the rising stars intopology [an area of mathematics] ..." What my mentor thoughtwas positive, "also Black", my SUNYAB evaluators thought as anegative - they didn't want a colleague who was "only Black."Forewarned, the mathematical community outside of Buffalosubsequently made no more allusions to race in letters ofrecommendation for me. I was awarded, by SUNYAB, tenure in 1978,and a Full Professorship came trouble-free in 1986. In fact, onecolleague confided in 1985, that he had miss-evaluated mymathematics when he opposed my case in 1976. Another colleaguepointed out that had I sued in response to the many civil rightsviolations which occurred in 1976, I would have received anational reputation - branded as a trouble-maker touniversities. Although I often lectured on my research at universities andconferences across the US and Canada, the distinction of"international reputation" was denied me until a one-timeone-year affirmative action program funded my overseas travel in1981. In Europe I was introduced to a group of Communist blocmathematicians who said, "We have known of your work for fiveyears, and at first we didn't believe your American colleagueswhen they said you were a Negro, and when we finally did believethem, we believed our government's propaganda - that yourgovernment did not allow you to leave your country." And then Iwas besieged with questions by these people whose knowledge ofAmerican race relations was limited to the 1930's, except forbilly clubs in Alabama, riots in Los Angeles, and murders inMississippi. In response to my 1981 lectures in Amsterdam and Prague, Ireceived invitations to speak in Austria, Egypt, East and WestGermany, India, New Zealand, the Soviet Union, and Zimbabwe. Ihave, for example, lectured on my research at Warsaw Universityin Poland, and at Oxford University in England. As a response tonine weeks of lectures to faculty and advanced students at fouruniversities in China (1988), I was made an Adjunct Professor atBeijing Teachers, and the city of Beijing indicated it wouldfund my next visit. Perhaps these other countries also haveAffirmative Action programs for American blacks, but I doubt it,and can only conclude that my work has some intrinsic value. Noprogram supported my travel in 1989, so I canceled lectures inEngland and Hungary. Since 1989 I have traveled with no or verylittle support from SUNYAB and/or overseas sources (Berne andPrague in 1991, Amsterdam in 1994). Upon learning of thesefacts, a mathematician in New York City said, "Don't YOU have anaffirmative action grant?" It seems that I am expected toreceive non-existent special funds while leaving the usualchannels for the majority. Is there enough racism to warrant affirmative action? "Nolonger!" is what I hear from contemporary whites. To them,history is forgotten or irrelevant. For me it is different, mymother's 1937 University of Maine Master's Degree in mathematicswas not good enough for Ph.D. work at other institutions and wasonly fit for high school teaching at a time when white malebachelor degree holders were endemic in colleges throughout ournation. Similarly, my father's Penn State Ph.D. in ExperimentalPsychology and high interest in research was only good enoughfor work as a Coast Guard cook in World War II, and for 15 to 24hour/week teaching positions in Black colleges the next 35years. For my parents, there was no time, money, or opportunityto do any thing but teach. After a 1975 lecture in AuburnAlabama, one mathematician confided that I could not havestudied with his advisor, a recently deceased former presidentof the American Mathematical Society. For black persons onegeneration before me, similar stories are true, not only for myparents' two brothers and two sisters all of whom earned atleast a Master's degrees by 1960, but for other individuals aswell. For each "magical mystery tour", as experienced by theonly African-american member of the National Academy ofSciences, the statistician David Blackwell who was "found"teaching 18 hours a week at a black college, and whose researchabilities later led to a Full Professorship at University ofCalifornia-Berkeley, there are 20 stories about math and sciencePh.D.'s whose wish to live near Boston or Chicago or Detroit orPhiladelphia in the 1950's resulted in work as a postal clerk.Prior to 1965, it was virtually impossible for a black to get afaculty position at a non-black institution no matter whetherdegrees came from Harvard or the University of Michigan. Toomany faculty shared the general public's overt racism. In orderto lead a successful career, I'm sure all people experience thesame difficulties as the white majority. In every walk of lifethere are unpleasant and/or stupid fellow workers and bosses.However, minorities must play the "Jackie Robinson, first blackin baseball" game daily. We must frequently ignore and forgetexperiences which I suspect would break an individual of themajority. Yes, I have been the recipient of overt racism in the "realworld" since birth. After "failing" a racist Latin teacher's 8thgrade course (she said I cheated), I was placed with Vocationalstudents and not allowed into the College Preparatory Program.After scoring extremely high on an IQ test, I was re-tested andscored higher (my parents complained of the re-test and learnedthe results). After earning over 700 on the College BoardExamination, the 1959 equivalent of the Scholastic Aptitude Test(SAT), my high school decided it was a fluke and my guidanceteacher did not support my application to any non-Black college.In the 1950's and early 1960's segregated Baltimore, Blacks knewthat restaurants and movie theaters were off limits. However, in1971 I was also not allowed to eat in a hotel restaurant acrossfrom Pennsylvania's state capitol building. Ironically, thishotel was the seat of an academic conference in which Iparticipated, and this hotel once employed my grandfather as abell hop his weekends off from teaching in the Harrisburg publicschools. In 1972 I suffered, not for the first or last time, atraditional indignity experienced by many Blacks, Hispanics, andNative Americans: I was stopped by Batavia police, frisked, andhad my auto illegally searched. What motive? I had broken nolaws, nothing was wrong with my car. They weren't even searchingfor someone with my description. No they were just "hunting."After "finding" drug paraphernalia, I was booked and allowed tomake bail. It cost $300 plus humiliation in front of mydepartment chair to have the charges dropped - the arrestingofficer did not even show up at the courthouse. In 1973 I wasstopped this time by Amherst police, frisked, and had my autoillegally searched. Again I had broken no laws and nothing waswrong with my car. They were just "hunting." Now these were"good guys", for after discovering I was a university professor,they apologized. Almost every time I return to the US, whether I am in NiagaraFalls, New York, in Blaine, Washington, or in KennedyInternational airport, I receive "special" attention fromcustoms officials. At the beginning of my 1984 lecture trip toWarsaw, I was pulled out of the line of people boarding the PanAmerican flight, and I told to put my hands against the wall andspread my legs. Evidently, the guards wanted to ascertain, indetail, whether I was carrying weapons. In 1988, prior to fiveof the 15 flights I made out of Buffalo, I was subjected to thehand metal detectors at the airport even though the walk-thru'sbuzzer had not gone off. In 1987, I was refused admission to a University Heights barwhere I went to "sip suds" with some of my students I didn'thave a sheriff's ID to "prove" I was 44 years of age. In thespring of 1989, with checkbook and university ID card in hand, Iwas refused the opportunity to rent the first 13 apartments Ivisited. Even in 1995, I am frequently scrutinized (i.e.,followed) in stores, I suppose they think, no matter how I'mdressed, I am a 52 year old potential shoplifter. Of all thesepetty annoyances, the most painful to me was the White womanwhose young son was misbehaving in a grocery store - shethreatened her child by pointing at me and saying, "If you don'tstop, I'll make that bogey man get you." So the next generationinherits the ignorance of our ancestors. Yes, I have been the recipient of unconscious racism inacademia. In 1977 at a University of Chicago mathematicsdepartment's "tea time", I was introduced as a mathematician andlater asked if I was a student. One hour prior to my 1980 NavalAcademy lecture, one of their faculty members, who "did not see"my suit, asked if I was "lost - separated from the men repairingthe [building's] roof". As recent as 1988 new SUNYAB colleaguessurreptitiously asked others if I am an "affirmative actionappointee". In this, Shelby Steele, you are correct, "No matterhow qualified you are, your qualifications are suspect." But itis wrong thinking that attributes such an attitude toAffirmative Action. Oh yes, I experienced racism in foreign countries though incommunist China, the Czech, Republic, East Germany, and Poland,"dressing" like an American often provided me an escapeunavailable to visiting African students. Ironically, in our"free" country, blacks must endure the daily onslaught ofunconscious slurs from shopkeepers, epithets hurled from passingpedestrians and motorists, unwarranted stops by police - justlike blacks in Canada, England, France, and the former WestGermany - just like Tibetans in Tibet, Gypsies in the CzechRepublic, and Vietnamese living in Poland. For many blacks inwhite-american academia, existence can be compared to that of aJew in Soviet academia The rules which worked in the past for the Chinese, Irish,Poles, and Jews, etc., and which work in the present for Cubanand Vietnamese immigrants, can not be sensibly applied toAfrican- and Native Americans. Although many groups came to theU.S. to escape persecution at home, Afro Americans are the onlyminority to come to this country as slaves and a decimatedculture. The American Indians are the only minority to havefaced genocide here, and to have their culture systematicallyattacked by our government. Thus, both groups have become theperpetual immigrants to their own country. I do not believe in "crying over spilt milk". I do believe incleaning it up before the heat of the summer makes the messstink up my house. For you who have forgotten the message of the1960's learned in the major cities of the U.S. (includingBuffalo), remember 1989 Miami. "Miami" can happen anywhere.Shall we wait for our government to imitate the leaders of Chinain their Beijing June 3rd stupidity. Lest you think the U.S. isany better, remember the unarmed students gunned down at KentState University in 1971 (the news media gave little or nocoverage to the Black anti-war\civil rights demonstrators killedby police in Orangeburg S.C. a month earlier). At present, eachgroup, in general, strikes out at its own - as frustrationscaused by the "outside" are often taken out "at home". Perhapsone day, these two minorities will be forced to rebel againstthe continuing oppression of the past and present. The reasonto have Affirmative Action in this country, which believesitself to be an example for the Soviet Union and the People'sRepublic of China, is freedom. How much freedom is there forpeople who are still refused opportunity because of color or sexor accent? How freedom is there for the ruling members of asociety which ignores its history and does not atone for itsmisjudgments? Yes, any general inter-racial conflict in acountry would likely crush the minority. But the same conflictwould tear apart the country - witness Turkey and the Armenians,Germany and the Jews, and the former Yugoslavia. Conscious racism puts an easily definable minority of equal orgreater ability on a lower position than a majority applicant,just as conscious sexism does to women. Unconscious racism failsto see that an applicant with less than adequate qualificationson paper, might, due to personal struggles, be the more thanadequate candidate. If you need an indicator of unconsciousracism, listen critically to jokes made by Rodney King, O.J.Simpson, Jessie Jackson, and Louis Farakhan. A prime indicatoris the news media's blame of Blacks for the over-whelminglynon-Black police attacker's riot after the trial of RodneyKing's , or the discussion on the integrity (or intelligence) ofBlack jurors of the O.J. trial. Where are we in the present? While those whites half my ageclaim "Blacks get the job whether qualified or not", I hearblack students tell of teachers turning them away from theiroffice door, or insulting their intelligence. Colleagues fromall over America love to tell me of their surprise that someblack earns an A in their course work (the telling is fine, butthe "surprise" exhibits unconcious racism--know it when you seeit). For the most part, racism in universities has been covert,unconscious, and somewhat dormant these past 20 years. Yetrecent news items suggest the dragon awakes - outside of theuniversity, it never slept. Have the minority firemen,policemen, and teachers hired the past ten years performed, onaverage, less well than their "far more qualified" co-workers?Does the evaluation of their performance possess any degree ofobjectivity? Not all Blacks are able to play the "JackieRobinson, first black in baseball" game as well as I, most don'tget the chance. Therefore, success stories such as mine arerare. Yet I am certain there are whites who would view asinsignificant, the personal daily racial slights discussedabove, especially since I have "made it" and especially sincethey have not had to experience it. Mathematics Ph.D. or not, I needed a special beginning, and Iknow very well the excuses for my unsuitability the universitywould have made had it not been for moneys earmarked for hiringminorities. Such special programs no longer exist, so theuniversity can make its excuses. In rare cases is universityhiring and promotion consciously racist in orientation. However,unconscious racism is as strong as ever. For most of my 24 yearsat SUNYAB, I have been the single Black member of the Faculty ofNatural Sciences and Mathematics, and there is no Black memberof the Faculty of Engineering. The excuse that "there are none"is ludicrous. If you want them, you can find them just as otheruniversities have found ex-SUNYAB Black faculty (not satisfiedwith the prospects here), and new minority graduates of the morethan 100 Ph.D granting institutions in the U.S. The reason togamble with aggressive affirmative action in this country is tocounter-balance the overt and conscious racism of the past whichunderlies the covert and unconscious racism of the present.Otherwise, "Equal Opportunity" remains unequal reality. Anaggressive affirmative action policy would have sought after theMexican American excellent mathematician I supported in themid-1980's. He wasn't the "right kind" of mathematician, soinstead we hired the "right kind" of Caucasian in the samefield- he resigned after one year, and his "last minute"Caucasian replacement was not re-hired a second year. Anaggressive affirmative action policy would have sought after thenew black female mathematics Ph.D. who, a few years ago, wasaccurately (in my opinion as well) judged "not as a good as"those white male applicants the university wanted, but wasunable to hire. She now teaches at a traditionally Black schoolwith less opportunity for research. In the early 1980's HowardUniversity became the first traditionally black school to offera Ph.D. in mathematics. One African American, with excellentpotential, graduate of this program received in 1987, no offerfrom research-oriented institutions - my own included. The enormous number of hours required to do mathematicalresearch limits my civil rights activity to the national level.In 1986, I was invited to Washington D.C., as a member of alarge and diverse committee of scientists. We were charged withfinding ways to slow, or to reverse America's declining positionin the world of technology. The meeting was sponsored by theNational Science Foundation, and it was a director of thatgovernment organization who said that it was clear that by theyear 2000, our country's position would be below that of allwestern Europe, as well as Japan, unless immediate action weretaken, especially to encourage minorities into basic research.He ended his keynote address with "A more aggressive affirmativeaction policy is necessary at all levels, from grade schools touniversities, and we hope you will tell us what to do." Needlessto say, my quip, "Make all minorities psychological supermen"brought strained laughter, but counter-measures by theReagan/Bush administrations and Supreme Court appointments mademe think "As below, so above there is ignorance. What's the usein saying anything?" An addendum: Worldwide political and economic problems havelead to large numbers of scientists and mathematicians desirousof obtaining positions in America. The applicant pool fromEurope alone is so large that even Caucasian American males arehaving difficulty finding jobs. Of course, they often accuse(with help from recruiters) Affirmative Action programs as thesource of the problem. Please send in your opinions/comments on "On Affirmative Actions" toCommentary@mathstat.yorku.caRELATED LINKS:See Cuba Brown at the Affirmative Action section in Scott Hill's African American Site List.Other essays available write: bonvibre@aol.com:1. SLY FOX APPROACH TO RACISM (February 96)2. THOUGHTS ON GYPSIES (December 95)3. FAT BUCKS WITH FAT DUCKS WITH FAT BUCKS (June 94)Return to Scott Williams' home page? |
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