I want you to be very, very clear here: what, EXACTLY, are you accusing me of? Because if you don't have a specific charge, then YOU are the problem. YOU are the one who's creating conflict where none need be.
I actually don't KNOW anyone who's been "passed up on promotions based on gender and color". So far as I can see there's nothing to keep fighting about. When I started my PhD program there were about 60% women. Now it's about 50% because of graduations and so on. At conferences I go to, it's between 40-60%. About 2/3 of our department are chinese, indian, black, middle-eastern, etc. You'll probably just say, "See, AA is working!" but my response is that these are highly qualified people who can and should get in on their own merits. They don't NEED AA to succeed, and having it there as a crutch is an insult to them.
What I'm saying here is that the need for affirmative action HAS gone away, and it's time for AA to go away with it. Keeping that dinosaur around any longer just emphasizes the very differences it was meant to smooth out, keeps people thinking in terms of gender and color and quotas and disadvantage. Let people be people and be judged by who they are, and stop coddling one group over another. Reverse racism is still racism.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandroot
Re: unfair advantages?
Date: 2006-11-03 07:26 pm (UTC)I actually don't KNOW anyone who's been "passed up on promotions based on gender and color". So far as I can see there's nothing to keep fighting about. When I started my PhD program there were about 60% women. Now it's about 50% because of graduations and so on. At conferences I go to, it's between 40-60%. About 2/3 of our department are chinese, indian, black, middle-eastern, etc. You'll probably just say, "See, AA is working!" but my response is that these are highly qualified people who can and should get in on their own merits. They don't NEED AA to succeed, and having it there as a crutch is an insult to them.
What I'm saying here is that the need for affirmative action HAS gone away, and it's time for AA to go away with it. Keeping that dinosaur around any longer just emphasizes the very differences it was meant to smooth out, keeps people thinking in terms of gender and color and quotas and disadvantage. Let people be people and be judged by who they are, and stop coddling one group over another. Reverse racism is still racism.