Stakes raised in affirmative action debate

In a new entry on his Constitutionally Speaking blog, Pierre de Vos, a law professor at UWC, challenges the views of his UCT counterpart, Professor David Benatar, who argued in a recent article on the ever-fasternews.com site that one of the problems with affirmative action was that employers would appoint ‘less qualified’ or ‘weaker’ black candidates above ‘more qualified’ or ‘stronger’ white candidates. De Vos challenges this view, saying: ‘I would ask: on what basis exactly will those in charge at an institution decide that one person who happens to be black is “less qualified” or “weaker” than another person who happens to be white? Who will decide on the set of standards to be used, and on what cultural, institutional or other ideological assumptions will these standards be based?’ He makes the point that ‘in an organisation where the institutional culture is deeply entrenched (as in many previously “white” universities and companies) it is difficult for those deeply invested in the culture to recognise that their views about what is good and bad for the institution are not neutral or universal, but very much the product of a certain time and place and identity’. He adds: ‘In such an organisation, an invisible norm – often based on a set of deeply ingrained cultural and racial assumptions – is deployed by those in power as a neutral standard, without any acknowledgement or understanding that this will inevitably perpetuate the unfair status quo and exclude those who do not share their worldview.’ The Benatar article The De Vos article Do you have a view on this issue? If you have, let’s hear it. Write to info@ebriefnews.com and we’ll publish it on the Legalbrief Today site.