Re: The just and the unjust ways to address modern racial inequality: affirmative act
That's for sure! I'm just a little worried that the actual differences, had slavery not happened, are a little difficult to precisely ascertain, because there are vast differences in class even within the African-American community. This doesn't really matter though.
It may not be a welfare check, but it is not all that much more permanent than a welfare check; as I said, affirmative action is treating the symptoms of the disease (lower qualifications for jobs) rather than the cause of the disease (lower educational potential).
It is also too much of an oversimplification to define affirmative action as "the opportunity to work at school and be a productive tax paying citizen," because that makes it seem like there is no downside to it, even though there is, for the other citizens that are hurt as a result of AA.
Oh god no I'm not saying that! Come now!
Didn't you even read the other parts of my post? I said, very clearly, "I suggest that, rather than treating the symptom through affirmative action, we treat the disease itself." and then I listed three (3) specific ways in which we could directly treat the disease. If you equate those 3 specific ways, minus affirmative action, as "We've stopped abusing them, we don't need to do anything more to help them," well then....... 
Hopefully this is now more clear to you.....
Which is a complete misinterpretation of my post, as I showed above.
And those "years" are continuing even to this day, unfortunately, for blacks, but also for whites, to a lesser extent.
Of course, that would make complete sense legally, and the similar situation that happened in our past is what made financial reparations for slavery possible (possible to be considered), but it's still not treating the cause of what is making them permanently disadvantaged; it's only treating the symptom.
But if affirmative action does indeed play a part in the decision to accept them to a college (pushes them over the edge to acceptance), that would mean that he/she is less academically qualified than the school would accept otherwise, which makes it much more likely that he/she would not be able to keep up, and makes it much more likely that he/she would drop out and not be able to fully take advantage of the education available (whereas a more qualified student would be more likely to). Again, this is treating the symptom instead of the disease itself, and is too temporary, for the injustice inflicted on others.
Of course I'm not against directing them to higher education. If you read my last post to you, you'll see that I listed 3 concrete ways African-Americans could be more directed to education, not by artificially inflating their resumes, but by actually trying to help them achieve the necessary qualifications for a high university education.
You aren't understanding me; by saying that the wrongs are permanent, I mean that the slaves and their decendants were wronged horribly, and those the wrongs inflicted on them were never righted; they continued to be discriminated against until their deaths, it was very likely. Now they're dead. We did not, and now cannot, apologize to them, or give them the money robbed from them through the years of their life, or anything. They're already gone.
How could we possibly rectify the original wrongs? Do you think the NAACP would ever say that it would be possible to fix the wrongs done by slavery? That would be like a Jew saying that it would be possible to fix the wrongs caused by the Holocaust. It's simply not possible.
I'm not convinced. Look at the statistics, you can easily see that African-Americans are greatly lagging behing America's averages. Look at the "one standard deviation behind" widely documented. It will likely take decades to achieve a semblance of normalcy. Why? Partially because things like affirmative action are temporary and do not do anything to address the root of the problem.
I never said it was a "terrible burden." All I am saying is that affirmative action is wrong; I did not say that it has all that much of an effect in the grand scheme of things. It would be better were there no AA, but to classify it as a "terrible burden" is definitely an overexaggeration.
That was obviously unjust, was it not? Now think if a school had other policies legally instituted which would then unjustly restrict others from entering, simply because of their race. That's the kind of thing happening to me.
Two wrongs do not make a right, Top Gun. Affirmative action IS racial discrimination, discrimination simply on the basis of race and nothing else; just as racial discrimination against blacks and for whites is unjust, no matter what the circumstances are, so is racial discrimination against whites and for blacks unjust, no matter what the circumstances are.
Since you either didn't read or didn't comprehend what I said before, I'll say it again: AA tries to correct the results (poor job prospects, etc) rather than the causes (poor educational potential), and so is very temporary and will not help fix the problem in the long run. The other 3 options I mentioned to help correct racial inequality would have a much more permanent effect; we should focus on programs like those, rather than on AA.
Andy: You say "researchers have discovered" it causes African-Americans "to believe they can't succeed without government help;" I seriously doubt that. Do you know how hard it is simply to find cause and effect through research? It is even harder to scientifically determine what, exactly, people believe. Surveys are unreliable, especially in racially sensitive matters such as these.
