Over Qualified

BY BILL WONG

I am of the generation that watched The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and laughed at their goofy routines and sang along with their sweet, simple tunes.

In recent years--long after they had divorced and taken on wholly different lives--I hadn't paid much attention to the exploits of either Sonny or Cher. When Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident last week near Lake Tahoe, old memories were rekindled.

What I found most interesting in reading an obituary about him were his views on meritocracy. Here is a quote attributed to him:

"What is qualified? What have I been qualified for in my life? I haven't been qualified to be mayor [of Palm Springs]. I'm not qualified to be a songwriter. I'm not qualified to be a TV producer. I'm not qualified to be a successful businessman. And so I don't know what qualified means."

Bono said those things in 1992, around the time he was running for the Republican nomination in California for the U.S. Senate. He had been mayor of Palm Springs since 1988, a job he decided to pursue after becoming frustrated with local government as a restaurateur. He didn't win the GOP Senate nomination, but was a elected a U.S. representative for the Palm Springs area in 1994.

Was Bono being his dry, humorist self when he talked about qualifications? Who knows? But his remarks are relevant in the continuing debate over affirmative action. An underlying assumption of critics of affirmative-action programs is that "unqualified" people are given breaks over "qualified" people.

This idea that affirmative action advances "unqualified" people over "qualified" people is evident in such public employment battles as fire and police department hiring and university (and even some high school) admission. The debate takes on a special edge because the supposedly "unqualified" candidates often include women and many racial and ethnic minorities, sometimes Asian Americans, but not always.

Critics of affirmative action attacked "racial preferences" when they successfully dismantled University of California affirmative-action policies in 1995. The argument turned in part on the assumption that highly qualified applicants for admission (many white and Asian American) were losing their coveted places at UC to black and Latino students with lower test scores and grade point averages. The latter were considered either unqualified or at best less qualified.

Asian Americans are among the most concerned about qualifications. Many of us are nothing if not obsessed with piling on academic credentials, or making sure we have the correct internships or are employed by the most prestigious companies.

I make these observations not as a criticism, but out of wonder. The wonder has to do with what I sometimes consider naiveté on our part about just what really is important in American society. Many of us believe that learning the rules of the game--whatever the game is--is very important. Playing by those rules is equally important. One of the apparent rules of American society is being "qualified" for whatever one pursues.

At some point, we might discover that what is really important in American society isn't playing by the rules, but who you know. What is also important is preserving the power of those in power. The powers that be may appear to seek "qualified" people to join them, but often they will hire those who make them feel most comfortable, regardless of qualifications.

The powers that be may give the impression that they believe America is a meritocracy where one can achieve the heights of one's chosen field with "qualifications" alone. But we do not live in such a perfect world. We live in a world where connections still count for a lot and where subtle racial and gender discrimination still takes place.

I would think that many Asian Americans who believe in meritocracy would look askance at Sonny Bono's life, which defied the absolutism of qualifications as a prerequisite to a good job. Upon his death, there were many wonderful things said about him. I am not here to disparage Sonny Bono's life, but I do wonder why some Americans--including those who say they believe in a meritocracy--would fawn over a man who admitted he wasn't qualified for any of the jobs he held.

Bill Wong is a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer and a regular contributor to AsianWeek.

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