Intellectual Free For All: Affirmative Action

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Time for a long-awaited...

Comments

[mrs_dragon]

YAY Discussion

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What I worry about is that things could start swinging the other way without affirmative action laws in place. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I don't trust that America as a whole is quite ready for there not to be anything there to remind them that they still can't turn someone away from a job, or deny them housing, and so on for being part of a historically marginalized group.

I totally agree that we have to get to the root of the disparity issues in order for gaps to be closed up. It's simply not enough to try and hire/accept a proportionate amount of [insert group] people because that isn't solving anything... but I still think that having that system in place until we can implement something more effective is a good idea.

[mrs_dragon]

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I don't trust that America as a whole is quite ready for there not to be anything there to remind them that they still can't turn someone away from a job, or deny them housing, and so on for being part of a historically marginalized group.

Isn't that what anti-discrimination laws are for?

[candent]

What I worry about is that things could start swinging the other way without affirmative action laws in place

Agree 100%

[koljeff]

I think that affirmative action is horrible, appalling, and, bottom line, racist and/or sexist.

Oh no! The white male is whining about affirmative action! Commence to eye-rolling!

Here's my point. If members of a given group are economically disadvantaged as compared to the majority (and I feel as though these days when people talk affirmative action, economic disparities are largely what's being addressed - correct me if I'm wrong), then wouldn't a better solution than targeting demographic groups by race or sex or age be to target policies by economic status? If a disproportionate number of, for example, African Americans are at a disadvantage in terms of, for example, getting into colleges, as a result of not being able to afford it, wouldn't income-based grants be disproportionately awarded to that group

[koljeff]

Oh PS the kid in example number two was a white South African; that's probably implied, but I meant to state it. Also, I meant that basis of my genitals.

Affirmative Discrimination 1

[nighthawkal]

Martin Luther King, Jr said in his "I Have A Dream" Speech, " I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. " I think that Affirmative Action Discrimination judges people based on their race as opposed to the content of their character or their qualifications. Did we need Affirmative Action back in the 1960's? Maybe. There were a lot of racists back then who probably did not want to hire minorities for whatever reason. But, I think today, in 2008, a year in which we had minorities and women as legitimate candidates for the Presidency, which is the most important job in the United States, that Affirmative Action Discrimination is outdated. I think that we should move in a direction of phasing it out and we need to work on improving the schools in areas where there are a lot of lower-income minorities so then they can compete with upper middle class people for accepatance into better schools and such

Re: Affirmative Discrimination 2

[nighthawkal]

I will give you a personal story about a conversation I had with a teacher in high school about Affirmative Action. I had this really liberal teacher in high school who was pro-Affirmative Action Discrimination. I was applying for colleges and it was the first year when Gov. Jeb Bush passed that Executive Order stating that state schools could not use race as a factor for accepting or denying someone acceptance into the university. I was aiming to get accepted into the Univeristy of Florida because it is the best school in the state. I finished in the Top 7% in my class and my SAT score was something like 1190. This liberal teacher, and I know she was well-meaning, said to me one day after school, "Oh no! Did you hear that JEB Bush is going to end affirmative action. You're not going to be able to get into a good school now because of that..." I know that she was well-meaning but I thought that was offensive because its basically a guilty white liberal saying, "Oh no! You're a minority. You're too stupid to get into

Re: Affirmative Discrimination 2

[nighthawkal]

Yup. There are rich minority groups out there like Cubans or like Asians where they don't have problems getting into the right schools and paying for them, but there are poor white people out there who may not have as good of a chance because they are poor or live in a poor area. If you want to 'even the playing field', I think its better to do it based on socioeconomic status and at the same time work on improving the schools in those areas. I think that education is the key to all of this and to making sure that we have a color-blind soceity.

[ex_annemarie10]

Dr. King told us to judge others based on their abilities and the content of their character, not on the color of their skin.

I think the election of Obama tells us that if a black man can be elected President without special rules favoring him for the color of his skin, then we no longer need affirmative action programs giving special advantage based on race.

[dorito]

Hey, this is eidna, my other journal. add me? :)