(no subject)

[novapsyche]

I'm going to say it, and I don't care how many people hate me for saying it:

Affirmative action is still needed in the United States.

Comments

[brendand.livejournal.com]

I don't think members of the GLBTQ community should be given additional "benefits" just because they are minorities. I just want the same rights everyone else has. Not discriminating against is very different from giving special rights to. Affirmative Action is giving special benefits to specific groups. While I do think that some rights deserve special attention, I do not think those groups are specifically: those of any race, gender, or sexual orientation.

If this were about discrimination, and preventing it, I'd be all for it. But this is not about preventing discrimination. As long as we (as a society) proceed in recognizing that women are different from men, women will be different from men. If we stop giving special privileges to groups, maybe everyone will start letting people just be people.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Considering that affirmative action does not mean quotas, please tell me what special privileges to which you refer.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

When applying to colleges, people of races other than white are given additional "points." Depending on how many students the schools are accepting, they accept the people with the most points. An African-American with a 1380 SAT score will be accepted before a White person with a 1400, ceteris paribus.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

You are narrowly defining affirmative action as dealing only with higher education. That is understandable, as the last big AA case before SCOTUS was the U of M case, but that should not be the only thing in your mind when you consider the program.

I will respond to this in full later, but for now answer me this: Do you feel so energetically opposed to other weights in admission, such as offspring of alumni getting preference? Personally, I am very happy that any of my future children will have an edge getting into my alma mater.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

I am not narrowly defining AA. I was giving one example of what I mean. But AA is based on the idea that we're giving benefits to people based on something other than need or qualifications.

I'm completely indifferent to the thought of my own children going to Eastern Michigan University. I'd like to think they could get into somewhere better (as I probably could have, had I wanted to). But it would bother me that someone else would get in based on that, if the other person is more qualified and as worked just as hard or harder to get in.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

But AA is based on the idea that we're giving benefits to people based on something other than need or qualifications.

Where are you getting this definition?

[brendand.livejournal.com]

I'll assume that you concede the "based on something other than need or qualifications," and that you're looking for me to defend "the idea that we're giving benefits to people." If that's not a fair assumption, please let me know.

From Wikipedia, "Affirmative action is a policy or a program which gives preference to some group of people (often minorities, women, or the physically handicapped) with the stated goal of countering past or ongoing discrimination against them. It can take many forms including priority acceptance for government contracts, education, or employment and/or language training or vocational training." (emphasis mine)

"When members of targeted groups are actively sought or preferred, the reason given is usually that this is necessary to compensate for advantages that other groups are said to have had (such as through institutional racism or institutional sexism or historical circumstances)." (again, emphasis mine)

How do you define AA? Equality for all? Because that is exactly not what AA is.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

Agreed entirely! Very similar to what I said here. (I was referred to this past post, which I hadn't read before.)