Monday, November 17, 2008
RIGHT WING B.S.
Right wing Republican think tanks have been working on trying to reverse affirmative action for over 30 years. Affirmative action has been fundamental to the progress that we have seen recently. From Justice Clarence Thomas to Barack Obama, affirmative action has begun to equalize the playing field. Thomas came from a small town in Georgia. Why would Holy Cross take him in 1967? He wasn’t a great student from a small Georgia town. In college, he did well then went on to Yale. Remember before affirmative action, colleges would simply pass over Blacks and other minorities. Whether they were qualified or not. No matter how some folks try to spin affirmative action, it is an excellent program that has benefitted Blacks, Whites, Latinos … Americans.
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3 comments:
Terry -
You are absolutely right. Ironically, many of those most opposed to affirmative action were the recipients of legacy college admissions - affirmative action for the upper classes (George W Bush, for example). That system continues undisturbed and for the most part without controversy. Why aren't the indignant Republicans complaining about that patently unfair system?
Terry,
You are not absolutely right.
There was a time when AA made some sense, so long as you were willing to set aside opportunities for special groups at the expense of other, more qualified candidates. And not all those in the the special groups felt good about the experience. Notably, Clarence Thomas has written and spoken about AA diminishing the recipients, including him.
In California, the citizens voted AA down. How come? In a multi-racial society, AA gets very complex. How do we rank the "rights" of Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Burmans, Indians, American Indians, name all your favorites Hispanic and Afican Americans, etc., etc? In California the vote was interpreted as meaning that many Asian people didn't like the favoritism towards Blacks and Hispanics.
And, OBTW, when is my debt to slavery to be deemed paid? I think I'm all caught up, and that is in no small part due to the fact that I have NEVER discriminated against anyone in matters of employment, education, housing, etc. I do cheerfully discriminate in my social relationships, but that is because I don't like some person, not because I don't like some group. For example,I dislike any guy who improves his lie, regardless of race, creed or color.
Affirmative Action is an old thought about social engineering that has lost any credible place in our society.
There are lots of good reasons for helping the less fortunate, but that justification should be based on need, not race.
Hags
Well said Hags!
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