What is Affirmative Action?

[packow]

I always thought I knew what Affirmative action was, but now I don't really know.

I always thought it was basically just giving minorities advantages over whites in getting into colleges.

Am I wrong? In this case, how is this not blatantly discriminatory and racist?

[AdamRice]

Yes you got the definition down.

They recently banned affirmative action here in Michigan, I can only hope it increases my chances of getting into University of Michigan, but it probably won't since that particular college has been fighting it (meaning they want to continue to give minorities an advantage).

Affirmative action is kinda dumb in the sense that it makes us less equal, it's unfair to give certain ethnic groups an advantage over whites.

Although you could just as well argue that most minorities have it harder off, and are therefore less likely to get into college then a white man.

[MortifiedPenguins]

Colleges across the US have to fill certain racial quotas for each school, I thinks it's based on some percentage to state race populations.

So, if your not white, you get more interest into your application and enrollment in school.

While this would be great for the inhabitants of Harlem and slightly easier to swallow, when you get black people, in lets say, Plymouth Massachusetts that recieve the same educations as the majority of white people in the school, it isn't fair.

[packow]

Hey I got a great idea. Let's just, I don't know, admit people to colleges on the basis of merit?

[AdamRice]

At 1/22/07 09:35 PM, packow wrote: Hey I got a great idea. Let's just, I don't know, admit people to colleges on the basis of merit?

That's kinda what is happening is places now. As I said earlier, in Michigan they just banned affirmative action this year.

[Tancrisism]

Affirmative Action isn't only in colleges, though. It's basically giving minorities (especially blacks) a chance that they didn't have in the past, which is a noble goal (though some feel it could further enstrange the races). When it comes to queues, though, that's not so noble.

[cellardoor6]

At 1/22/07 05:14 PM, packow wrote: I always thought I knew what Affirmative action was, but now I don't really know.

I always thought it was basically just giving minorities advantages over whites in getting into colleges.

It's not just in colleges. Affirmative action forces not only schools, but businesses and unions to meet a certain quota of minority students/employees/patrons and so forth in order to give minorities favor and more chance to succeed (at the expense of whites). And in order to do this, schools, businesses, and unions have to lower their standards to accept people who in normal circumstances aren't qualified.

So think of it this way: Say both a white man and a black man apply for a job and the white man is more qualified and preferable. The employer will be required by law to hire the black man over the white man.

Affirmative action functions on the belief that since blacks and other minorities were treated unfairly decades ago, that today they should be given special treatment at the expense of whites. So Affirmative action is a program heralded by minorities and minority-sucking politicians who think that they can fight inequality with inequality.

Am I wrong? In this case, how is this not blatantly discriminatory and racist?

It is blatantly discriminatory and racist and hypocritical at the same time.

And not only that, but it WON'T WORK to solve the problem that it pretends it will solve. Blacks and other minorities need to help themselves and quit blaming their problems on the white man. So if we just baby them through affirmative action and give them unfair advantage it only allows them to continue to avoid solving their own problems.

And what I think is funny is that any politician who opposes affirmative action is immediately labeled a racist and prejudiced, when really they are just enforcing equality instead of allowing prejudice and racially-motivated government policies.

So to me, affirmative action is basically a way of minorities exploiting political correctness to take revenge against whites, and to give their own races unfair advantage and treatment.

Affirmative action is crock of shit.

[Dealy-rizazamatizazz]

This is an interesting topic, it's an old one, but good. When affirmitive action was started it was pretty much a governmentally stated rule, it was to ensure minorites were entered into schools, not by grade but by number, to make things "look good". But, in many cases it was challenged by "white" students. I don't remember the exact name of the case but, the student had scored higher than the 3 of the top minority students in placement, but he was denied do to the racial quota, it was a big deal then, but argument could have been made that, those minorities would have faired better simply because that education would take them further, simply more important to them.

[cure4death]

You wont believe what a problem it is here in South Africa. We're actually forced to sell 30% at least of our companies to previously disadvantaged people (mostly blacks... in fact only blacks. indians and other 'previously disadvantaged' are still disadvantaged).

Its gotten so bad that if your lawyer or supplier doesnt support this then you may not buy/use them. Or else you lose your business rights.

But it might be abolished in 2008. If not we dont get the Soccer World cup in 2010. Which i think is gonna be a big stuff up. We dont have enough stadiums yet. lol

[MortifiedPenguins]

At 1/23/07 05:25 AM, cure4death wrote: You wont believe what a problem it is here in South Africa. We're actually forced to sell 30% at least of our companies to previously disadvantaged people (mostly blacks... in fact only blacks. indians and other 'previously disadvantaged' are still disadvantaged).

Well, I mean it's kinda different in South Africa.

Considering that there the majority and you did keep them as second class citizen untill the 90's.

[Karzand]

At 1/23/07 05:25 AM, cure4death wrote: You wont believe what a problem it is here in South Africa. We're actually forced to sell 30% at least of our companies to previously disadvantaged people (mostly blacks... in fact only blacks. indians and other 'previously disadvantaged' are still disadvantaged).

Yeah but in SA it was the minority whites dominating the majority black Africans. SA whites are lucky that there wasn't a mass black African uprising/genocide of the white minority that had oppressed the black Africans for so long.

[cure4death]

At 1/23/07 05:53 PM, Karzand wrote:

Yeah but in SA it was the minority whites dominating the majority black Africans. SA whites are lucky that there wasn't a mass black African uprising/genocide of the white minority that had oppressed the black Africans for so long.

Ok, you got us there but when the blacks fought for equality and what not I'm pretty sure no one expected a type of reverse apartheid. And anyway, the whole world oppressed black citizens even after apartheid ended. South Africa was just stupid enough to give it a name. I've seen some pretty harsh oppression from America these past few years still.

Also, its not all whites that wanted apartheid - it was those select few - sort of how your republicans dont care about your problems till it happens to them... something like that.

[Der-Ubermensch]

Affirmative action is basically a slap to the face for human evolution.

Not an oxford worthy definition, but in essence correct.

[Eoewe]

Affimitave blacktion? I am against it. I think that everything should be based upon merit and someone more deserving shouldn't have to suffer because others get a free ride.

[qygibo]

Affirmative action is a bit like communism: the form in which it currently is functioning is not the way that it is really supposed to work, and it might not be possible to actually enact in its proper form.

In short, affirmative action is supposed to combat this following line of thinking:

A white man and a black man are applying for a job, and the boss happens to be a white male. BOTH candidates are EQUALLY qualified, but somehow the white man applicant somehow looks MORE qualified than the black man, even though both men hold equal qualifications.

The saying goes that birds of a feather tend to flock together, and that's sort of what happens in today's world. We have a tendency to think that our own ethnicity is somehow more qualified and more special than any other ethnicity. This isn't totally a bad thing, but the problem is when it comes to the other ethnicities trying to get jobs, and especially in trying to advance further in a job. Whites tend to see other whites as more qualified since those are the people they're naturally more familiar with (and it's the same with any other ethnicity) and so minorities like blacks and Hispanics can get the shaft, at times. A good example of the problems that result from this kind of thinking are in the lawsuits that 5 minority agents filed against the FBI back in 2003, alleging discrimination when it came to performing their job and when it came to trying to obtain possible promotions.

Quotas, as they are today, are mostly just trying to force a way of thinking that might not be effective. It's basically trying to force whites, blacks, Hispanics, etc, to interact via the blacks and Hispanics being bumped up to a mostly white forum and expecting whites to be able to see that blacks and Hispanics can be equally qualified. As it currently is, it doesn't work too well; since it requires a total change of thought counter to what we were taught.