Re: The just and the unjust ways to address modern racial inequality: affirmative act
AA has not been all that widespread; "hundreds of thousands" I'm sure is an overestimate of whatever the true number is.
I would not make that comparison; that's comparing MY disadvantage to thousands of other people's advantages, which is of course not an accurate portrayal. The "hurt" I feel is insignificant and meaningless to the higher issue of whether AA is a just policy or not.
I most certainly do believe this is the case, although you are free to persuade me otherwise. It seems completely logical to me. Instead of saying "I don't believe you believe this" it would be much more helpful if you said "This is wrong because this particular premise is incorrect." Then we could get some productive discussion!
But college is very demanding (so it seems, for most people), and especially at the higher colleges, the minimum educational standard is quite high. Those that do not meet the minimum educational standard do not get admitted because they would likely not do well at all. However, if the applicant happens to be black, they may be admitted anyway if the school practices AA.
You can't simply send a mediocre to average high school student to a top, demanding school, and expect him or her to do well.
You know, the national graduation rate is only around 42% for African-Americans.
Now you're just making stuff up. I never said it was like that. All that matters is that I was somewhat more qualified than my friend and yet he was accepted while I was rejected.
I'm not quite the tip top of applicants. I could definitely have done more. Of course Stanford would not be letting in a Snoop Dog, but it would be reasonably plausable for them to admit an above-average student with an extracurricular activity, like my friend, in light of them practicing affirmative action.
Yes, and I disagreed on your premises, which seemed to be that equality was quickly normalizing. It isn't. It's going, but it will take much more time.
While I did say that the policy as a whole was not just, I never said that it was never just or helpful, because it is. Maybe 10 more motivated African-Americans got into Stanford than before, and maybe 10 idiot white jocks with trumped-up resumes were rejected as a result of AA. AA has also, to a limited extent, slightly reduced the racial wealth gap. But not by much. But the benefits are vastly outweighed by the costs.
Of course, but the wrongs of the Holocaust can't actually be put straight; when people die, you can't really fix that. (Yet.) Same kind of thing for slavery. We can't help the original slaves regain their rightful assets and dignity; what we CAN do is to help their decendants and treat what has resulted from slavery and discrimination, and improve their educational potential.
Of course some whites would call it preferential treatment, because it would be. But at least in this case (whichever one you're referring to) it would be justified, and no one would really have to suffer for the recipient to get the benefit. Yes, Stormfront would probably call foul anyway. But that's inevitable. But it's better to treat the cause, and further equality of opportunity, than to treat the symptom, and to further equality of outcome.
Which is why I suggested things like the peer mentor organization. Due to no fault of their own, African-Americans on average have lesser academic credentials than others. We need to fix that.
I never, ever said it was a "terrible burden," nor am I protesting about it very personally. My own experience is close to irrelevant; however, the policy remains unjust.
Were it not for the fact that
(1) those who were only admitted as a result of affirmative action were less qualified than others
(meaning they would be less likely to learn as well and to graduate)
(2) affirmative action is quite uncommon, and systematic forms of it in public schools have been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
(3) even if it did help "millions" of blacks, it must have also prevented "millions" of whites from being admitted and getting the job
Don't "play the blame game?" Well, then, I guess I'll never be able to be involved with politics at all. Bush could have said "Yes, Iraq was invaded, but let's not play the blame game," for instance. Assigning blame and coming up with solutions is one of the integral components of politics and political forums. If I see a significant injustice, I will declare it unjust, even if the defenders of the injustice would prefer me not to point it out. If everytime something unfortunate happened in the political sphere and the citizens were told "Don't blame anyone, just keep going on with your daily lives, don't worry about it, don't dwell in the past," and the citizens obeyed, our nation would be in much, much worse shape.
Pointing out injustices is the first step to correcting injustices. Do not discourage me from that.
You seem to disagree with my assertion that AA treats the effect (fewer acceptances to jobs and such) rather than the root cause (lower educational potential at beginning of life), but you've never said why...
