in the words of Louis Fairy khan (humor) Affirmative Action is Necessary for Minorities to be Competitive in the Workplace The audience that I intend to attract are those that are minorities and agree with the idea of affirmative action. The persona that I chose is that of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of The Nation of Islam. I imagine that this is a speech to thousands of African-Americans that agree with Mr. Farrakhan. I appeal to tha emotions of my intended audience because I feel it is a strong tool in writing a good paper.
I am not an authority on affirmative action but I feel that I know enough about it to present a good case on the subject. Good day my beautiful brothers and sisters. I’m sure you all know me by now because of my extensive involvement with the African-American movement. I, Louis Farrakhan, your delicious leader in this march towards equal rights and equality, feel that among our many obstacles in ‘White America’ the most important is Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is definitely a necessity in our long drive towards freedom. It certainly seems that we as a minority have come a long way since the days of slavery.
Unfortunately, we are not yet considered the equal by our Vanilla brothers and sisters. It has been a long and treacherous journey, my savory brothers and sisters, but I feel that we can do more as a community if we can work side by side with the ‘crackers.’ It is not the white man’s or the Jew’s problem that we are not treated equally, it is ours. I was reading a well-known African-American newspaper the other day and I came across something that I felt was interesting. Our strong black brother, Ron Brown of the NAACP stated, ‘We ” re not ready to be color-blind because racial discrimination continues to afflict our society.
Affirmative action continues to be needed not to redress grievances of the past, but the current discrimination that continues to exist’ (Khalenberg). Can I hear an Amen? Was that not pinning the tail right on the hide of the milky-white donkey? We definitely have a strong black brother that knows his stuff and does his thing for our lovely, delicious community. Mr. Brown is obviously an intellectual and brilliant man because he has the last name Brown, which is a good reference to our beautiful chocolate colored skin. Has anyone here ever played dominoes? I’m sure many of you have probably noticed how the domino is assembled.
The majority of the domino is black, but the only part of the domino that counts is the little white dots. Does this sound an alarm in the heads of ‘Black America?’ It should. This means that no matter how much that we are in control the white man will always be involved and will somehow deem himself the most important. While the white man will always be involved, we need to take their jobs and help give them to our own people. Affirmative action helps us to help our own. Do not get me wrong my luscious Nubian people.
I believe that we are equally qualified if not more qualified for many of the jobs that are being offered in today’s ‘honey society.’ In fact I was having a conversation with a ‘whitey’ the other day and she told me of some article that another ‘whitey’ had written. The author of this article said, Affirmative Action does not mean hiring unqualified women or minorities over qualified white male applicants, nor does it mean quotas. In fact, hiring somebody solely on the basis of gender without concern for merit is the very definition of discrimination, be it against men or women, whites or minorities. The courts have said repeatedly that the purpose of Affirmative Action programs is to create ‘an environment where merit can prevail’ (O’Gara 25). This whitey was exactly right.
Her comments were delicious and to the point. I certainly must agree with this Caucasian woman. I too believe that there should be an environment where merit can prevail. And by there being affirmative action there is more of a chance that the aforementioned environment will occur.
A delicious thought came into my mind while I was eating my ‘Count Chocula’ cereal this morning. If anyone here loves the taste of some good ‘Count Chocula’ raise your hand. Of course my lactose intolerant brothers and sisters may not understand this, but hopefully those of you who love to drink your delicious and nutrient rich milk will take your black sister or brother by the hand and help them through this following milk related hell. Now, while I was eating my luscious cereal this morning I stirred the milk quickly but carefully. As I stirred the milk, the evil white marshmallows and putrid white milk slowly began to turn to a shade of a nice chocolate brown. I slammed my spoon down and praised Mohammed for showing me the light.
I discovered that because of the influence of blackness upon the white community, things will slowly take a turn towards our goal; a black and white swirl instead of a black speck in a white space. With the help of affirmative action, we someday will be the vanilla and chocolate swirl that many of us hope to be. Affirmative action will integrate the black community and the white community and will give underprivileged minorities the opportunity to compete in a white dominated society. Minorities have been given a bad hand in life and with this stroke of delicious goodness, in the form of affirmative action, minorities may now be able to compete for the jobs that have been rightfully theirs for years. As I read a back issue of one of my favorite magazines, I came across a line that struck my delicious fancy. It said, ‘In twenty to thirty years these [minorities] are the people who are going to be paying for social security.
If they don’t get the training and the education, how are they going to pay for others’ retirement and the national debt’ (Zippered)? That’s right brothers and sisters, those were words said in fear. How are we, the minority, supposed to take care of those whites if we can’t perform their jobs for them? They need us to work now because later they will be the minority and they know that in their old age their survival depends on us. My lovely followers, it should be obvious to you that we need affirmative action in hopes that we will be the white man’s equal in the workplace. Outside the workplace we sit at the back of the bus because we want to, not because we have to. We drink out of community water fountains. Why? Because we are thirsty.
We no longer must drink from our own separate water-fountains that say ‘for nigger use only.’ We have traveled long and hard and we have built this country on our blood, sweat and tears. No longer should the white man have control over our future and well being. In order for this to happen we need our rightful place in the working society that affirmative action provides. The whitey’s say, ‘Your neighborhood ain’t nothing but a terrorist place, a place where man kills each other, a place where everyone is trying to survive. Where we are from it’s not like that.’ Man, where I’m from, its a modern day Vietnam, and my backyard’s a concentration camp. It’s not about being militant, it’s about surviving.
They say, ‘The government should shut you down. You don’t belong here. It’s people like you who give the United States a bad name.’ My people, the only thing the government knows how to do is not govern, but how to add up and subtract from my black ass what’s rightfully mine. It’s time we believe in ourselves and help our communities, brothers and sisters. Affirmative action can and will help our black communities rise above the prejudice that faces us. If the white folk don’t want to be around us or work with us, then it is their problem.
We need these jobs to educate our young and keep our people off the streets. It’s time to wake up people, and realize what we have to do. Please support the idea of affirmative action and keep our people alive. Courtesy of chew (1995) University of Maryland.