History’s arc and affirmative action

Should Arkansas end state agency affirmative action programs like those that seek to recruit black teachers to serve in the Delta? The Arkansas House of Representatives will decide.

The Senate has already said yes.

Senators passed Senate Bill 3 by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, Wednesday, by a vote of 24-7 with 2 voting present and 2 not voting. The 24 yeses were all Republicans, including Sen.

Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who represents Van Buren County. The seven nays included the Senate’s six Democrats and Sen.

Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale.

The bill would prohibit preferential treatment favoring an individual or group “on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in matters of state employment, public education, or state procurement.”

Its purpose would be to end affirmative action, which involves policies meant to help certain historically disadvantaged groups – in this case, minorities and women.

If it passes, individuals who believe it has been violated could sue in circuit court and gain injunctive relief – meaning the judge would stop what they want stopped – along with court costs and attorney’s fees. Violators would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

A similar bill passed the Senate but failed in the House in 2023. As Sullivan noted, the climate has changed nationally. President Trump has been elected and has issued executive orders reversing federal government affirmative action policies.

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Wednesday’s debate was passionate and personal but decorous. Sullivan said the bill actually expands opportunities and doesn’t end affirmative action in the private sector. By removing the word “Minority” from the Critical Needs Minority Teacher Scholarship Program, more people could get the scholarships. Those go to future teachers who agree to serve in underserved areas, such as the Delta.

He did not deny that institutional racism is part of Arkansas’ past. But he said there is an “arc of history,” and it’s time to move forward. “Racism will never cure racism,” he said. “If racism is the problem, continuing racist discrimination and preferential treatment will never solve that.”

His arguments did not sway the four Black senators, all of whom are Democrats. Sen.

Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, said her brother served in Vietnam and couldn’t go to the same club as the white soldiers. (“Talk about preferential treatment,” she said.)

Sen. Reginald Murdock, DMarianna, implored his colleagues not to pass the bill.

He said he couldn’t have afforded the education he received at the University of Arkansas without the minority program that led to him becoming an engineer.

Sen. Jamie Scott said white men have not faced systemic discrimination, and affirmative action has not hurt them.

“If you cannot look back in your family history or find a relative who was lynched in the state of Arkansas because of their race, then your experiences simply don’t compare to my ancestors’ or me as a black woman in this chamber,” she said.

Clark, the only Republican to vote no, said he liked much of it. However, he could not get past the part that would prohibit the state from specifically recruiting Black teachers. Black male students statistically benefit by having Black teachers, he said.

Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, who voted for the bill, said the United States in its history was inflicted with the disease of racism, and laws were put in place to effect a cure.

“And the argument we’re having today is, ‘Are we over the disease and addicted to the cure, or is this a disease that we need a forever ongoing treatment?’” he said. “I like to think that we’re over the disease, and that we’re going to have to break the addiction to the cure.”

Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, who is white, said affir-

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mative action policies were crafted over time and surgically, but Sullivan’s bill is a “blunt instrument.” Programs like the Minority Health Commission would be imperiled. One of two lawyers in the Senate, he said the bill doesn’t define preferential treatment. That’s a big omission because public employees who do it are guilty of a crime. Sullivan later replied that courts would define it.

Tucker recalled a speech a couple of decades ago by Dr.

Terrence Roberts, one of the nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Roberts said that institutional oppression lasted 300 years, while equality under the law had only existed since the mid-1960s.

Have the recent decades fully counteracted the previous three centuries? Roberts said no then, and Tucker agreed.

How a person feels about the issue depends on what part of the arc of history they believe we’ve reached. We’ll see what the House decides.

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 18 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@ mac. com.