The Unraveling of Affirmative Action
- Thread starter theworldismine13
- Start date
Since it's inception, there's always been a strong push to tear down affirmitive action. Leveling the playing field is seen as "reverse racism" in the eyes of white folks. The article seems to imply that affirmitive action isn't helping minorities as much as we'd think; however, the important thing is that minorities at least have the option to obtain a decent education, and subsequently a high-earning job. While the data presented suggest that minorities brought in by "preference programs" struggle with the workload and social isolation, my experiences have been different: off the top of my head I can name 4 people with law degrees, 2 people with MBAs, a chick moving up the ranks of the Associate Press, a guy with a Master's in Biology, and a plethora of other minorities with Master's, Doctorals, etc. that were all recruited in the same year under an affirmitive action program [at a Big Ten University]. For the continued success of people like this, I think it's important to keep these programs in place, despite [arguably] skewed data that may show otherwise.
The black community really does need to drop the anti-academic attitude; but for those that wish to succeed, they need to be afforded the opportunities to do so. Public school education in most big cities (and poor rural areas) tends to suck, but I think that can be countered with higher expectations from family and the community.
Quick note: When I was in college, the majority of my white teammates would skip class, party, smoke, drink etc. They did enough just to stay academically eligible, while a lot of the brothas worked their asses off in their fields of study. Now, a lot of those white dudes have nice comfy six-figure jobs, complete with 401k and all that; not because they were smarter or worked harder than everybody else, but because they all had a rich uncle, or friend of the family, or some other medium to easily transition into a high-paying job. White men taking care of white men. Until this "goode-ole boy system" is torn down, I think affirmative action should stay to provide some sort of a counter for it.
Since it's inception, there's always been a strong push to tear down affirmitive action. Leveling the playing field is seen as "reverse racism" in the eyes of white folks. The article seems to imply that affirmitive action isn't helping minorities as much as we'd think; however, the important thing is that minorities at least have the option to obtain a decent education, and subsequently a high-earning job. While the data presented suggest that minorities brought in by "preference programs" struggle with the workload and social isolation, my experiences have been different: off the top of my head I can name 4 people with law degrees, 2 people with MBAs, a chick moving up the ranks of the Associate Press, a guy with a Master's in Biology, and a plethora of other minorities with Master's, Doctorals, etc. that were all recruited in the same year under an affirmitive action program [at a Big Ten University]. For the continued success of people like this, I think it's important to keep these programs in place, despite [arguably] skewed data that may show otherwise.
The black community really does need to drop the anti-academic attitude; but for those that wish to succeed, they need to be afforded the opportunities to do so. Public school education in most big cities (and poor rural areas) tends to suck, but I think that can be countered with higher expectations from family and the community.
Quick note: When I was in college, the majority of my white teammates would skip class, party, smoke, drink etc. They did enough just to stay academically eligible, while a lot of the brothas worked their asses off in their fields of study. Now, a lot of those white dudes have nice comfy six-figure jobs, complete with 401k and all that; not because they were smarter or worked harder than everybody else, but because they all had a rich uncle, or friend of the family, or some other medium to easily transition into a high-paying job. White men taking care of white men. Until this "goode-ole boy system" is torn down, I think affirmative action should stay to provide some sort of a counter for it.
This entire post, and especially the bolded.