How Do You Feel About Affirmative Action?

[Yeah, me.]

Well it's not his fault that your unreads are stupid.

Um, actually it is his fault that this particular unread is stupid.

you've won this round. 

uh-huh

okay, you win every round because you're just so much smarter than me.  happy? 

[redemption]

okay, you win every round because you're just so much smarter than me.  happy? 

I'm always happy. It's one of my charms.

[Yeah, me.]

okay, you win every round because you're just so much smarter than me.  happy? 

I'm always happy. It's one of my charms.

next you're going to claim modesty is one of your charms.

[redemption]

next you're going to claim modesty is one of your charms.

That would be immodest. And take your mouse of the search button.

[Yeah, me.]

next you're going to claim modesty is one of your charms.

That would be immodest. And take your mouse of the search button.

off?  still doesn't make sense.

[mjb]

The way I think about AA is better described through an analogy.

We're driving down the road and our truck is veering towards one side. We take immediate action and begin turning the opposite direction to avoid running off the road. We don't fully understand the engine problems and we don't really know how to fix it. So we continue to drive down the road turning the steering wheel to one side to offset the veering to avoid a crash that nobody wants.

[redemption]

The way I think about AA is better described through an analogy.

We're driving down the road and our truck is veering towards one side. We take immediate action and begin turning the opposite direction to avoid running off the road. We don't fully understand the engine problems and we don't really know how to fix it. So we continue to drive down the road turning the steering wheel to one side to offset the veering to avoid a crash that nobody wants.

 


Everyone's using "we" today. What's going on?

[jkapplicant]

Affirmative action can be applied in different ways.  If someone who is disadvantaged by being lower-class still shows potential and has a ranking and scores that are highest out of a class (even though the scores might not be as high as those more advantaged) that is one thing.  However, the affirmative action I do not approve of is admitting someone simply because of their skin color.

People who get full rides to institutions who have lower scores and GPA than their socio-economic counterparts do should not have been let in in the first place... let alone given money!  Just because you have a different color skin does not itself mean much.  It is more important to look at someone's background and see if they prospered while in poverty.

[John Galt]

Affirmative action can be applied in different ways.  If someone who is disadvantaged by being lower-class still shows potential and has a ranking and scores that are highest out of a class (even though the scores might not be as high as those more advantaged) that is one thing.  However, the affirmative action I do not approve of is admitting someone simply because of their skin color.

People who get full rides to institutions who have lower scores and GPA than their socio-economic counterparts do should not have been let in in the first place... let alone given money!  Just because you have a different color skin does not itself mean much.  It is more important to look at someone's background and see if they prospered while in poverty.

There is a fundamental difference in why blacks are mostly in poverty and whites. One had no opportunity whatsoever to move up the economic ladder historically and the other did.

[Denny Crane]

I'm generally a supporter of AA (and have benefitted from it a number of times).  However there is one question that I heard someone ask and I have not yet been able to find an answer that I feel is adequate.  The question was asked by someone who fully supported AA on the undergraduate level but opposed it at the graduate level.  The question was why do minorities need AA for graduate school if they got a boost for undergrad which presumably gave them a leg up and an opportunity on par with other non-minority students.  If anyone has an answer for this, please share, as I haven't really come up with an answer myself.