Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action was a good idea to start with 30 years ago when minorities had nothing and could not attend college. However, today we are equal in opportunity and affirmative action needs to be done away with.

If you didn't see Obama's race speech, you may enjoy this. I think it's an excellent analysis of the conditions of your post. Anti-affirmative action pundits distract us from what I believe is the real issue.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

For more:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html

Every organism's heartbeat holds a universe of beauty at http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/green-underbelly

America is run by rich white people and their rich white ideas/ activities/ cultures, etc.

note: not all rich people are white and, not all white people are rich

The reason Affirmative action is nessisary is because though not all white Americans are rich, by any means, they are more easily adaptable to that culture than minorites of the same socio-economic background.

For example, if a white college student from a poorer neighborhood, wanted to learn the ins and outs of the corporate social structure, he would adapt easier than a black college student from the same background. Making his asension up the corporate ladder easier for the shear reason that he is of the same "color" as his employer.

So although it may seem that Affirmative Action practices reverse racism, it accually rights a social wrong ingrained into the psyche's of all Americans. Affirmative action accually balances the OPPORTUNITY for people of color because for every job extended to a qualified black candidate, there have been 12 extended to his white counterparts.

That doesnt nesissarily finish the argument though. Americas job as a country is to provide opportunity for all citizens. So if there are 150 qualified white candidates, and there are only 20 qualified candidates of minority status interviewing for 55 jobs, then there must be an equal ratio of candidates hired from each hiring pool. Ideally around a ratio of 48-to-six.

So, Affirmative action was passed to ensure the equal representation of all cultures represented in the prospective qualified population.

"my first name must be, "He aint sh@t", cause everytime I come through, yall be like "He aint sh@t"!....I'll be dat" --Redman

"Anything that can go wrong, Will go wrong"----Murphy's Law

I think sometimes it's hard for me to imagine the racism that must keep certain minorities from getting far in the business world since it's not something that I often see. I totally see the point of affirmative action and understand why it was necessary when it was created. I still however find it to be a flawed system. Obviously though, no matter what, whether affirmative actions exists or not or if it exists in a different way, there are going to be injustices against certain people. That's just the way that the world works, unfortunately.

I agree with you almost completely. Affirmative action has its good points, but it's mostly unfair to white people. Some of us are just unfortunate enough to not have enough melanin in our skin to defend against ultraviolet rays. Should I apologize for that? I think not.

But in other ways, it is still necessary to even out the playing field. But the system needs a serious overhaul. It's true that people tend to hire people more like themselves, but there are qualified minorities out there. That's what some people need to recognize.

But whites are going to be a minority in the US by 2042. At that point, this system will either be abolished or completely reversed. And I will be rofling.