I have a dream...

[Faure]

I like your thinking jwilcox. Does anyone have any criticism to wilcox's idea?

[psr13]

I am not interested in reading the 1000+ topics below mine, for I am sure many of them read exactly the same way--one person expresses support/opposition regarding affirmative action/quotas and the other side responds.  I don't care for bickering or fighting.

This is America, however, and I will speak my mind.

Affirmative action and quotas, both in job placement and admissions to school, are racist.  The practice should be done away with immediately.  So you're telling me we're going to solve the problem caused by 200 years of racism by having the government institute a new policy of reverse racism?  Does anyone really think this is the best way to heal the wounds of the past?  I have a dream--a dream in which my children are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character and application.  A color-blind society is the only way to achieve this.  Reverse racism does not work; it only causes further division.

rac·ism   
1.  The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2.  Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

Braveheart, how would you empower poor minorities if not through AA. Does anyone have a solution that they think is better than AA?

How would you empower poor whites?

[Freak]

The reason some cultures succeed academically is the emphasis placed on education by that culture. Academic equality will only exist when all cultures place the same emphasis on education. The solution is to change a culture’s perception of education.

Personally I believe you must start with parents, not children. Although children learn faster and change easier, parents are in a better position to teach their children than the government. Convince parents that education is incredibly valuable and perhaps they will pursue education, at least they will strongly encourage their children to pursue education.

One generation of parents can change the next generation. But, part of the problem in this “now” generation is that we don’t care about the coming generations. Forget the next generation, we don’t care that poor choices we make now will hurt us personally 10 years from now.

[Faure]

You're right about academics being a focus in some cultures. If you look at the success of asians that come to the United States it is usually due to their parents having high hopes for their children. I wonder if the lack of encouraging higher education is going to create an even wider divide in the times to come. Here is a great quote from Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World:

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my chidren's or grandchildren's time-when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

Amazingly prescient considering that he wrote this in 1996.

[_BP_]

Hey Faure, great quote.  I wouldn't mind borrowing that for another thread..haha

[Faure]

Thanks! Spread the word The book is excellent if you are looking for some light, but interesting, summer reading.

[_BP_]

Thanks! Spread the word The book is excellent if you are looking for some light, but interesting, summer reading.

Really? I will definitely pick it up.  Appreciate it.

[ImVinny!]

"Not really, I think s/he made a valid point. But just to play devil's advocate, some law schools wish to add diversity of opinion. People of different ethnic backgrounds will all have different experiences and beliefs to contribute to a law school class. That kind of diversity cannot be guaranteed by looking at income alone. "



And why not? I think that a poor white student from new York probaly has the same amount of diversity as does a poor black student.

[ImVinny!]

But if you have two kids growing up side by side in poverty they have the same beliefs and values and lack of self-esteem that comes with it, all that stuff. The only difference is the color of thier skin. Shopkeepers will be looking at them suspiciously just like the black kid whether they are black, white, latina/o, etc.

[be10dwn]

HOw is an African American kid who grew up in an upper middle class environment more at a disadvantage than a whiet kid that grew up in the backwoods of Tennessee?  I think there may very well be a place for AA, but we should reexamine how it is used.  "There will be a time when we are judged by the content of our character and not the thickness of our wallet".  LOL  I don't think it's so much about black and white as it is about green.  But then again, this is coming from a stereotypical white guy who will never understand most of the gripes minority groups have and get's sick of being blamed for something that took place two hundred years ago.