Ethnic Newswatch article, “White Male’s Case for Affirmative Action” by Paul Rockwell

This article, found in the online database Ethnic Newswatch, talks about how affirmative action is not only for blacks, but it is available for everyone; they just might not realize it.
The article begins by talking about how reverse discrimination is just like discriminating against the blacks, but instead you are discriminating against whites. Affirmative action was not just created to compensate blacks for past wrong doings; it was created way before that idea. During the Vietnam War, minorities were drafted to fight overseas, while through college draft deferment whites males were going to college to make a life for themselves. The author then goes on to list several other affirmative action programs that many may overlook; “Tax breaks for corporations, subsides for middle-class home buyers, mass transit subsidies for white suburbs, bank bailouts for desperate bank executives, selective allotments for immigrants and refugees, price supports for corporate farmers, are all shot through-with considerations of need and preference” (Rockwell). In England after WWII, the Marshall Plan gave GI’s billions of dollars to help train and provide new jobs for them, another form of affirmative action. Our world we live in consists of many different kinds of affirmative action programs for all racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Is affirmative action beneficial? I think certain types of affirmative action are beneficial, but that they should be openly available to everyone no matter what their racial background is. But affirmative action programs that apply towards college admittance or job hiring should not be allowed. People should be admitted or hired based on their own talents and skills, not because in past times their race was discriminated against.
I think this article gave me a new insight on all the different kinds of affirmative action. When I thought of affirmative action, I thought only of letting more African Americans into colleges and universities, or hiring more blacks over whites because of past wrongs committed against them. I did not realize all of the programs, and such, mentioned in this article would be thought of as affirmative action, but now I see there are many other kinds of affirmative action plans.