Quote:
Originally Posted by cowboy8055
Affirmative action seems noble on the surface but its end game, equal outcomes, isn't realistic. People don't have equal abilities. To ensure equal outcomes some people have to be propped up while other kept down.
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It's endgame is not "equal outcomes", it's endgame is equal opportunities. Minorities still have to perform (or do in most cases).
Prior to affirmative action (which was started for women who at the time could only fill jobs as nurses, teachers and secretaries) male descendants of Europeans had their own "affirmative action" quotas of 100% for about 469 years.
Few who think affirmative action is warranted suggest that equal outcomes be legislated (and if they do the vast majority do not agree with them), but considering that women and many minorities did not get access to equal education (and many other advantages) for most of 500 years, once they have a chance to perform equally (or exceed) they then should be given the chance.
Studies show again and again that there are both institutional and implicit racial and gender biases even when race cannot be determined (such as in letters with potentially minority sounding names) and that is when explicit racism is taken out of the equation and these biases occur in both women and minorities as well. The existence of "true merit" is so scarce as to be almost non-existent.
IMHO nothing was "taken away" because after segregation and discrimination were ended male descendants of white Europeans no longer had a right to their 100% quota anymore and still had the benefits accrued from hundreds of years of their own "affirmative action".
BTW, "salesguy" - Italian is not a "racial" minority. Italians, no matter whether they can speak English or not are white Europeans. "Hispanics" are mostly mestizo or a mix of European and native American, though now a Spanish speaking person of 100% European descent from Latin America would generally be considered a Hispanic "minority". That probably isn't right just as an upper class black from Haiti or Africa should probably not benefit from minority status accorded to rectify discrimination and slavery of American blacks, but race is a cultural and very crude designation that is far from perfect. That said, until someone comes up with something better to practically redress the pernicious effects of centuries of segregation and discrimination, affirmative action may be the only way to actually affect change.
It isn't an easy issue, but doing an ostrich and saying that there isn't an issue is simple denial. Anyone here have a better solution than affirmative action or "do nothing"? I thought not.
