I think that affirmative action is justified if women and minorities support it and to the extent that they support it. That is why I let them decide how to fight their oppression.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

I think today's children will grow up having far less racist and sexist ideas than the current one. Racism and sexism, although still existing, has been dwindling with each generation. Schools are working hard to end the problem. My high school founded the ERASE club (End Racism And Sexism Everywhere), and my college had a whole department devoted to women's studies and all students were require to take one class in the department and another class called Racism and Prejudice in America.

I agree with raytri, AA is necessary now, but it shouldn't become a permanent program. As racism and sexism slowly decrease, the program should slowly be eliminated.

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LET ME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

And after white males have been sufficiently oppressed, we let them take a turn.

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Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens. It's a dumb question... skip it.

It often means hiring someone who is a little less qualified than another simply because they are a minority.

It's funny, my wife, a woman (no jokes) from a country with far more sexism than US, thinks AA is the stupidest law she has ever heard of. She always is complaining about a few African-Americans in her company who aren't quite qualified for the job they have making her job more difficult and she blames that on AA.

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LET ME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

Education can be helpful, but the two great evils at work are much more basic than learned attitudes. Sexism is a symptom of the male propensity to seek excessive power. While men are perfectly capable of controlling this tendency, which is undoubtedly biological in its origin, many will not do so unless forced. Racism is primarily motivated by economics. This becomes clear to me when I see the rhetoric about Hispanics "stealing" our jobs, for example. For these reasons, I don't see sexism and racism going away by voluntary action. If they do, though, I will be very glad. Ultimately, women and minorities must decide on the solutions to these problems, moreover, since white males (including me), even those who care about ending bigotry, cannot possibly comprehend the suffering of women and minorities.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

I don't believe this propensity for power in men is biological. I think males learn this type of behavior from a young age.

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LET ME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

I hope that you are right.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

Men are naturally more aggressive and larger. We get that from the apes we evolved from. Our height was originally useful to survival because it scares predators. Men generally defended females, children, and the weak by standing tall, acting fierce, and using sticks. Eventually these traits as well, as the impracticality of pregnant or nursing women's involvement, made men the hunters and warriors when we figured out how to do that. The only other major physical difference (besides the obvious ones) is that women have brains that are more efficient for transmitting information between hemispheres.
Aside from that, it's almost all conditioned. It seems natural. Much of it is based on ancient, ancient shapings of culture, some of which were essential to our survival in a different context. But it changes over time and early anthropologists found out in studies of cultures that gender norms are far from universal (though matriarchy is extremely rare and it is questionable how embellished the claims were of a tribe with opposite gender norms- it was during a festival of some sort. But that is because of the practicalities created by men being larger and women going through periods of birthing and nursing, not natural inclination... If societies did have gender roles reversed in the days of hunting and gathering, they probably died out or switched).
Men are more aggressive and possibly more sexually promiscuous (though that's debatable) by nature. But how you are taught to control or express those things is a lot more important. Humans can learn to ignore almost any natural impulse. We are creatures of culture.
And men who treat women bad learn it from somewhere. They use "nature" arguments as an excuse.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

There is no excuse for male promiscuity and aggressiveness. Whatever their source, they must be destroyed by the most effective means possible, whatever those means are.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

You can't destroy a propensity for aggression. You can only control it. Genocide seems like going just a bit too far. Perhaps just teaching boys to respect women would be a better method.
Why is everyone so violent over the past few days?!

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III