OH BOY! SPECIAL POST!!! As a gift to my loyal readers, I've given in, and I'm offering a double post today! In this post, I'm going to offer some suggestions for the Affirmative Action program. SPECIAL NOTE: I am not racist. I do not favor any one race over any other, since everyone is part of the human race. Except the Rock. He's immortal.
I am not a happy panda. I am unhappy that racism still exists, even if it's mostly towards white people. Affirmative action is racist in it's current state, and needs a bit of a tweak. The ideas behind it are fine and admirable: to assist those who have been diminished in the past, and need a leg up in some cases. Fine. Dandy. Not all of those people are black. The young caucasian woman who applies to college, and is denied admittance in favor of an african american strictly on the account of race, is not the same young caucasian woman who whipped slaves and supported "jim crow laws". Why should she be punished? That isn't fair either. Instead, why don't we help EVERYONE who needs help economically, regardless of their skin color. That's really what this is all about isn't it? The great equalizer? I want everyone to be equal, but I want it to be on a raised tier, not a lowered one. Let's focus on bringing the entire lower quarter of the population up, not just a few based on our presumptions of how much one's race entitles them in reparations.
The primary reason that we have affirmative action is what? So that the disenfranchised black people in America can have an equal shot of being successful after so many years of oppression, right? Well, what about the native american population that experienced the worst genocide of any race of people in history? Affirmative action gives more to the african-americans than it does to the Native-americans, you can check on that, it's true; but why is that okay? More importantly, who get's to decide who get's how much? Are African americans worth More than native americans? What about asian americans or hispanic-americans? where do they fit in? Personally, I'd put more money toward's the Native Americans, (due to my heritage) but since there aren't as many due to the pioneers TRYING TO KILL THEM ALL, I suppose that might not be realistic. My point is, everyone has a bias of who should receive more money based on race, so why don't we just remove the race element and focus on what we're trying to fix? The economic status of the malcontent! Let's help everyone, and try to not be so resentful of someone because of their race (that comment goes all directions). We must acknowledge the past, lest we repeat it, but more importantly, we must learn from it! Separate can never be equal! That goes for Scholarship programs too!
Well, That's enough for me. (I am still not a racist. I am a satirist.)
-His Royal Dude-ness
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I fully agree with what you are saying, I just have one further tweak to add to affirmative action. Yes, take race out of the element. Yes, focus on economic disadvantage. But, the quality of education the student has received in the past should be an element also. For example, economically, I count as disadvantaged. But, I was lucky enough to attend a public school system that was EXCELLENT. So, someone who is equally economically not-so-good, has the same academic record, but comes from a much lower quality education, should probably have that taken into consideration. An episode of Law and Order comes to mind. A kid was accepted to a highly competitive college solely for his race, and he went, only to find out that his high school had in no way prepared him for it (and in true L&O fashion, he snapped, and killed someone). Regardless, what I'm trying to say is, affirmative action needs to take in students that are appropriate for its college, not for its statistics. Don't accept disadvantaged students to make your college look good if you know they can't succeed there. That would be a further disadvantage to them. Affirmative action as it is, is giving the wrong advantages to the wrong people, for the wrong reasons. Give out advantages to people who actually need them, but only if they can actually use them, or else its a useless gesture.
Yes, one aspect of my recommendation that I forgot to mention was geographical location and how it ought to be attended to by the modified version of affirmative action. i.e. Someone from an inner-city school district would have to be given a different form of advantage (perhaps in the form of tutoring?) so that they could have a greater chance for success. But regardless of how geographical statistics would be incorporated into the whole thing, I agree that they do need to be included somehow, and I neglected to mention that in my initial post.
-His Royal Dude-ness