Since AA seems to be a hot topic of discussion on this board, and I just had to read/research/ and write a paper on it I thought I would share my findings with the members of the board. Below are the Myths, and facts of Affirmative Action, and how the policies affect our society and country. Its pretty sad that white paranoia about losing their crappy jobs has lead to widespread misinformation about AA for decades now. You can disagree until you are blue in the face, but the facts are facts. Ok, here we go. Myth Affirmative Actions states that a company must hire people of color, even if they aren't qualified Fact : Simply put, this is illegal. Its illegal to base a hire on a persons color, race, religion etc.The law states that qualified individuals must have the same chance of getting a job, or into college, as another qualified individual, regardless of race. In other words, if a Law Firm is looking to hire 5 new lawyers out of law school, and they get 10 applications from 5 qualified white men, and 5 qualified black men, the black men must not have their application simply thrown away just because they are black. Likewise, if the only applicants are 4 qualified white men, and 67 unqualified black men, they can't hire a black man just to look "diverse". They must, and 99.9999% of the time wait until they get another qualified applicant. In other words, if you didn't get a job, and a black person did, you sucked and they didn't. Such is life. Myth Affirmative Action doesn't work Fact From 1990 to roughly 2006, the Black Family Income (MFI) Was the SAME as white families. Why? Much is credited to fairer hiring practices, which allowed black applicants to get a fair and equal opportunity at a job, or get into college.Welfare enrollment, crime rates etc all went down during that time. Black families saw a dramatic increase in their standard of living. After 2006, and along with the economic meltdown, political pressure lead to a decline in the support of Affirmative Action, but crime and Welfare enrollment rates are still dropping Myth Affirmative Action is racist/reverse discrimination Fact See number 1. Whites are never excluded from jobs because of their race, but the same is now true for blacks thanks to Affirmative Action. And finally... Myth AA only helps Blacks Fact The group that has benefited the most from Affirmative Action is White Women. Furthermore, Affirmative Action has done nothing to help blacks stuck in extreme poverty, as they aren't qualified to do much. AA REALLY helps upper middle class blacks the most Questions?
Very good post. I didn't know AA was even an issue until I visited these forums. I think scary talk of white's being discriminated stems from the fear that white privilege will no longer exist, which sounds closer to what I hear in anti-AA arguments, though people won't come right out and say it. It's like that case where the student in Texas brought up an anti-AA case but it was thrown out because the black student that took the spot she wanted was, indeed, a better student. It's pretty gross that this kind of racism has manifested itself, though I suppose it was always there, it's just a lot louder now...
It's mainly racist conservatives that are obsessed with AA. They simply have problems dealing with the fact that there are many successful minorities out there, so when they see a successful minority, they automatically assume it's because of AA. I guess it makes them feel better about their own failures when they try and put down others that look different than them.
Isn't that pretty much it? Anything that doesn't basically give whites jobs is "racist", or "reverse discrimination". How dare the rest of society demand equal OPPORTUNITIES.
Thats racism in a nutshell, and it goes both ways. Black people that fail will blame whites. White people that fail will blame blacks. People are only human.
I don't think all people against AA are racist, to be honest. I think some of them have been listening to the wrong people spew pseudo-logic talking points which spread misinformation and therefore become an anti-AA person without really knowing what they're talking about. It's sort of like if you had the KKK explaining "We're for the betterment of society". It sounds good until you hear the rest of their bile and I think a lot of anti-AA propaganda has been portraying itself as creating 'fairness' when in reality that's not what repealing AA is about since AA guarantees fairness. Of course some people also believe (mainly libertarians) that the free market can do whatever it wants and that discrimination would clear itself away through voting of money to business that don't discriminate...obviously I have issues with that because it assumes it would naturally happen.
I don't disagree. But if you listen to our Conservative friends, you would think it's only blacks who blame whites for their problems, when it equally happens the other way around.
Economically Libertarians will never have much say-so in this country, and thank god. - - - Updated - - - Stroll down and look at the "Similar Threads"
Oh, there were a couple threads a year ago... and longer. My bad. This is 2012. Some "hot topic" alright....
Actually, I can attest to AA still being an issue as I've posted in several new threads either started specifically for it or mentioned it later not less than a week ago. It's still Tea Party issue as well, and they've not disappeared (unfortunately) yet, so it's still technically a modern issue.
They can hire a black man just to look diverse. Why not? They can hire a black man for whatever reason they want. And I don't know what you mean by this "they must" stuff?? They can wait for a qualified candidate if they wish, or they can hire some toothless moron off the corner and dress him up in a suit and call him VP if they want. This is still a somewhat free country man.
I thought it went without saying that they could hire a sex doll if they wanted. The point I was trying to make was that it isn't likely they would.
You wrote the word FACT - and then went on to write a bunch of false statements. Sorry I missed the point you were trying to make.
It gets discussed on this forum daily, but if thats your biggest issue with this thread then I'll give myself a pat on the back.
