:)

[FredJohnson]

.

[JTG]

I think that this post is probably satire, and if it is, it's unfortunate for you that you just made the case against race-based affirmative action. Thanks bro.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26499-2004Oct12.html

"Abigail Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a Massachusetts state school board member: "I think these racial preferences are very pernicious," she said in an interview on a PBS Web site after voters banned the use of affirmative action based on race in University of California admissions. "I don't think they do black students much good. I think they're poisonous in terms of race relations. And I do not think they are fair to the Asian student, for instance, who has worked very, very hard and is kept out of a Berkeley because a student with a slightly different skin color has gotten in as a consequence of racial identity."

""Chinese and ALL Asian Americans are PENALIZED for their values on academic excellence by being required to have a HIGHER level of achievement, academic and non-academic, than any other demographic group, especially Whites, in order to be admitted to Harvard, the Ivies and the other Elites in this zero-sum game called admissions based on racial preferences." - Ed Chin

"He [Chin] noted the recent estimate by Harvard humanities professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. that two thirds of blacks at Harvard were not descendants of American slaves, but the middle class children of relatively recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. "Why should they deserve admission with lowered standards (relatively speaking) based solely on the color of their skin over a high achieving Asian American living in a Chinatown ghetto or a Black ghetto (many Asians live in Black and Latino ghettos) or a poor white from the slums of NYC?" Chin said.

"But however that works out, Chin feels it is only right and fair and better serves the cause of vibrant and interesting campuses if admissions officers stopped giving preferences based on race, and instead tried to admit more young people whose parents are not affluent and did not go to college, people less like me and more like Daniel C. Tsui."

You can all feel free to attack me now.

[JTG]

"He [Chin] noted the recent estimate by Harvard humanities professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. that two thirds of blacks at Harvard were not descendants of American slaves, but the middle class children of relatively recent immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. "Why should they deserve admission with lowered standards (relatively speaking) based solely on the color of their skin over a high achieving Asian American living in a Chinatown ghetto or a Black ghetto (many Asians live in Black and Latino ghettos) or a poor white from the slums of NYC?" Chin said.

Lets destroy the myth that a black or mexican "steals" a whites spot at a school. Reality is a white, mexican and black "steal" an asians slot at a school.

No, to use your vocabulary, reality is a mexican and black "steal" the spots of white and asians at a school. I don't like using the world steal because I don't feel like spots belong to people of specific races, but the fact of the matter is that while whites may benefit a tiny amount from aa when compared to asians, both groups are still net losers at the affirmative action game. We hold different opinions on whether this is a good or bad thing, but it's an incontrovertible fact. When race-based affirmative action is abolished, like in CA, the percentages of whites and asians go up, and the percentages of blacks, for example, go down.

[«ě»]

Hmm, that really presumes that whatever score you happened to get on your LSAT and your GPA is the ultimate guideline to your qualifications. Thats a lot of judgment places on two little numbers. And diversity in itself has a value, especially in an educational setting.

[«ě»]

*shrug*
Apply to an Asian school then?

[guyminuslife]

lol

This thread doesn't deserve attention.

But tag anyway.

[JTG]

I see that Mr Johnson is gone. But in his absence, here's some interesting poll data to look at:

http://www.pollingreport.com/race.htm


 Gallup Poll. N=1,385 adults nationwide (MoE ± 3), including, with oversamples, 821 non-Hispanic whites (MoE ± 4), 241 blacks (MoE ± 7), and 266 Hispanics (MoE ±  7). Interviewing was June 12-15, 2003, for non-Hispanic whites, and June 12-18, 2003, for blacks and Hispanics.

  "Do you generally favor or oppose affirmative action programs for racial minorities?"
      Favor    Oppose    Unsure       
      %    %    %       
   ALL    49    43    8       
   Non-Hispanic whites    44    49    7       
   Blacks    70    21    9       
   Hispanics    63    28    9

As you can see from this data, African-Americans and Hispanics support AA by 49 and 35 point margins, respectively. Non-Hispanic whites are much more closely divided, with a slight plurality opposed to race-based AA.

BUT, when you change the text of the question being asked to this:

  "Which comes closer to your view about evaluating students for admission into a college or university? Applicants should be admitted solely on the basis of merit, even if that results in few minority students being admitted. OR, An applicant's racial and ethnic background should be considered to help promote diversity on college campuses, even if that means admitting some minority students who otherwise would not be admitted." Options rotated
      Solely
Merit    Race/
Ethnicity,
Too    Unsure       
      %    %    %       
   ALL    69    27    4       
   Non-Hispanic whites    75    22    3       
   Blacks    44    49    7       
   Hispanics    59    36    5       

Surprise, surprise. A slim plurality of blacks support race-based AA in college admissions. Solid majorities of non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics oppose it, with 69% of the overall US population favoring a strict merit admissions policy.

Now this question really puzzled me:

  "If two equally qualified students, one white and one black, applied to a major U.S. college or university, who do you think would have the better chance of being accepted to the college: the white student, the black student  [options rotated]  -- or would they have the same chance?"

 White
Student    Black
Student    Same
Chance    Unsure    
      %    %    %    %    
   ALL    31    29    36    4    
   Non-Hispanic whites    24    34    38    4    
   Blacks    67    5    24    4    
   Hispanics    44    14    38    4

Do sizeable majorities of blacks and hispanics really think that the white person is more likely than the black person to be admitted to an American college if they have equal qualifications? Wow, I'm speechless.

How about this interesting question result?

  "Do you think only a few black people dislike whites, many black people dislike whites, or almost all black people dislike whites?"
      Only a
Few    Many    Almost
All    None
(vol.)    No
Opinion
      %    %    %    %    %
   ALL    52    38    6    1    3
   Non-Hispanic whites    52    39    5    1    3
   Blacks    54    38    5    1    2
   Hispanics    53    31    10    1    5

Apparently 37% of the country(well there's MoE as well) thinks that either many or all blacks dislike whites. 45% of blacks share this opinion.