General

Gold plated laptops for everyone

Affirmative action isn't really effective as it could be in resolving the disparity between black / latinos and whites

it seems like a better idea to start at the foundation of the problem by giving them an environment where they have an equal chance of succeeding rather than putting them in one

I see it's historical use. There was a terrible generational/institutional racism issue that truly did start off some people far behind others.

However at this point we're many generations past slavery. We're long past minorities not voting.

I don't see how a poor minority kid has it any worse than a poor white immigrant kid from the EU. Life deals people different sets of cards, deal with it. No more need to draw lines along race to help people deal with a bad hand.

Well, this thread is pretty much absolutely terrible from the get-go. A terrible quote, completely misrepresenting the purpose of Affirmative Action and then clearly portraying your lack of knowledge on Affirmative Action in that it does significantly more than affect post-secondary education where GASP following your academic self-perceived excellence, you'll be under-represented. Also, AA in base takes considerable allowances for socioeconomic status and gender which can often override racial disadvantages if perceived to have overwhelmingly abundant socioeconomic advantages etc, etc, etc whatever hello Basilmarket why do you keep bringing me back.

[quote=aznseal]As y'all probably know, I think it's bull-honkey.

"Whose fault is it that under-represented minorities are under-represented? Their own! I'm fairly sure until the 1950-1960's the american college campuses wasn't saturated with Asian/Indian and Middle eastern students. Yet they somehow became "over-represented" .. gee i wonder why? Maybe they actually get their ass up and work hard instead of sitting around crying about how they are under-represented."

quote taken from SDN (Student doctor network)[/quote]

I am not sitting around crying about it. I doubt any one else is either.

Usually, the only people who really benefit from AA are the well-off URM, who don't even need AA in the first place =/

i'm honestly kind of surprised affirmative action was created in the first place. you think the kind of people who think up these things would realize that class is a much bigger factor than race. race can definitely have socioeconomic effects, but being a minority doesn't automatically mean you're lower class. having a class-based "affirmative action" would help all the less privileged minorities the original set out to, while also helping people in lower classes who need it.

[quote=Oncall]The statement doesn't even make sense. Under-represented minorities are under-represented because their minorities! Simple definition...do you think you're smart by quoting something from a student-doctor forum? Puh Lease buddy...and to state that Middle-Eastern and Asian students are over represented in universities is a gross exaggeration to say the least..the population that is most over-represented is Caucasians..and that's even too general[/quote]

We are over-represented lol. 5% of the population but 25% of top universities lol.

Meh I used to be all 100% anti-affirmative action until I took a class on philosophy and current social issues, and a class on the economics of education.

The thing is, it's REALLY unfair in the US if your parents are poor. You live in a poor neighborhood, go to a school that's funded by poor people's taxes (therefore you get the worst teachers since your school can't afford to pay better), and get the worst education in the country. It you look at economic research, the rich people get even richer and the poor people get even poorer because of college.

Academic success's biggest predictor is the socioeconomic status of the parents. Teachers even subconsciously place children from richer households in the front of the class, it's been proven. Basically, if you're poor in the US, it sucks. And who's poor in the US? Minorities such as blacks and hispanics.

Most immigrants from Asia are educated, anyways. The reason people think asians are so smart all the time is because the stupid, lazy ones never stop mopping the floors in Asia to even try to get an education so they can get here.

Now, Affirmative Action is slightly like putting a bandaid on a bad burn. We need to fix the education system in the US so that the poorest don't get the worst education. It's worsening the income gap between the rich and the poor.

For those who think affirmative action is just straight up racism, you have to consider this example. In a hypothetical civilization, there are green and red people. The red people have always had most of the money and all the high-ranking positions. The green people have always had the least money and the lowliest positions. In their education system, people with the least money get the worst education, and vice versa. People cry that oh, the green people's children don't need help, they just need to work harder to overcome all the factors working against them, then they can be like the successful red people.

You're making it all about race. It also takes into account one's sexual orientation, religion, etc. as well.
In my opinion, I don't trust employers to do anything they should do on their own. Pay a fair wage, hire people fairly, all that stuff.
It's a bad example but, if every hiring supervisor was racist then there would be no white/black/hispanic/asian/etc. persons working for that supervisor depending on what he is. It would not be fair. I agree ^ positive racism is still racism and I've met a lot of very disrespectful black/hispanic people but...I've also met just as many disrespectful people of all race, religion, sexual orientation. You just have to ask yourself if you really trust employers to pay a fair wage to everyone and to give everyone a fair chance.

[quote=Mang]postive racism is still racism.
if you want to get rid of racism, get rid of crap like AA.[/quote]
There is no such thing as positive racism, it's always unfair to one race or another.

Just depends on where you live. In Seattle, my school with ~2000 kids had probably 50% Caucasians, 20% Hispanic americans 10% African americans, 10% Asian americans, 10% other.

i moved to a small town with 400 kids in my graduating class and I believe I saw one African american student and a couple of Asian kids my entire year there.

The quote is saying that asians/indians/etc are considered "over-represented minorities" and thus do not fall under AA where as blacks/hispanics are considered "under-represented minorities" but back in the 1900s, asians, blacks, hispanics, and indians were all "under-represented". Some just chose to work harder.

I don't understand that quote.

Affirmative action seems pretty stupid to me, I find the population is already pretty racially mixed, I'm sure schools would still have a lot of diversity.