Affirmative Action: still needed?

[r3port3r66]

Affirmative Action was born some 30 years ago in the US. It provides "special" consideration to potential employees and students that are either ethnic or female. Institutions that follow this policy usually have certain quotas, or goals to reach by a certain time. They must give preference to ethnic individuals applying for the same postion as a white person. Sometimes a lesser qualified ethnic person is offered a position over a more qualified white person applying for the same job or University. For example, assuming you're a white male with great grades in high school and you're applying to Yale, you might be declined because an African American woman--with a lesser GPA-- has also submitted her application,and under affirmative action is accepted to increase that college's diversity prism.

There is a term called "Angry White Men", and it means that some people think that affirmative action robs them of jobs and benefits because institutions that follow the Affirmative Action structure must choose a person of color over a caucasian person who might be better qualified. Hence another term "reverse discrimination"was born.

Do you think we should have such a program in existence? Women and people of color deserve a chance to succeed, but do they really succeed when they are simply offered opportunities based on their gender or race? Or is America still as biased as it was 30 years ago, and a program like affirmative action is still needed to balance out those that might not otherwise have a chance at success?

[Steve]

Of course affirmative action is still necessary...but, (wow, it's gonna hurt to say this) I have to agree with Bill O'Reilly on the matter: it should not be race-based but income-based. If you're on the lowest end of the socio-economic scale, there aren't many people looking out for you if you want to continue your education, or apply for a better job.

It would work like this: a white guy who lives in a Tuscaloosa trailer park, a hispanic guy from the Bronx, and a poor black guy from Decatur all apply to the same school. All three have identical grades and SAT scores. Instead of choosing automatically choosing the hispanic guy because he's hispanic, for example, the school would select whoever comes from the poorest background. If that's the white guy, so be it, if it's the black guy, so be it. Sounds pretty fair to me, since schools can't accept everybody.

[Yoda]

Regardless of whether or not we need government intervention to offset racial bias, one thing is crystal clear: the system needs to be changed. It's riddled with head-scratching exclusions and puzzling inconsistences.

Of course affirmative action is still necessary...but, (wow, it's gonna hurt to say this) I have to agree with Bill O'Reilly on the matter: it should not be race-based but income-based. If you're on the lowest end of the socio-economic scale, there aren't many people looking out for you if you want to continue your education, or apply for a better job.

It would work like this: a white guy who lives in a Tuscaloosa trailer park, a hispanic guy from the Bronx, and a poor black guy from Decatur all apply to the same school. All three have identical grades and SAT scores. Instead of choosing automatically choosing the hispanic guy because he's hispanic, for example, the school would select whoever comes from the poorest background. If that's the white guy, so be it, if it's the black guy, so be it. Sounds pretty fair to me, since schools can't accept everybody.Right on, Pidzilla!

[bolverk]

Right on, there is nothing wrong with agreeing with Bill O'Reiley.
In most colleges in American with a point scale blacks have about +25 points, whites are 0, muslims are -3, and asians are-10. To me that seems incredibly unfair. Income basing would be so much better, but until Jesse gets into another scandal or dies we're stuck with this crap.

[Sexy Celebrity]

It would work like this: a white guy who lives in a Tuscaloosa trailer park, a hispanic guy from the Bronx, and a poor black guy from Decatur all apply to the same school. All three have identical grades and SAT scores. Instead of choosing automatically choosing the hispanic guy because he's hispanic, for example, the school would select whoever comes from the poorest background. If that's the white guy, so be it, if it's the black guy, so be it. Sounds pretty fair to me, since schools can't accept everybody.

This sounds like some sort of obsession with tragedy! "Ohhh, you were stung by a swarm of bees when you were kid, had one leg amputated, you were raped by a clown, but you have high SAT scores. Come to my college! You there... you had high SAT scores too, had one leg amputated, and you were raped by a clown.... but only one bee stung you. Sorry! Rejected."

I'm going to write a science fiction book about a white, upper class boy with a high SAT score who builds a machine that he steps into to turn himself into a hispanic kid. Then he builds an even bigger machine, puts his entire town into it, and transforms it into a Bronx-like city. And then he gets into college.

NO!!! If it's going to be a science fiction book, I'll have the white, upper class boy turn himself into an Indian from Bombay, India -- Django.

[Piddzilla]

Of course affirmative action is still necessary...but, (wow, it's gonna hurt to say this) I have to agree with Bill O'Reilly on the matter: it should not be race-based but income-based. If you're on the lowest end of the socio-economic scale, there aren't many people looking out for you if you want to continue your education, or apply for a better job.

It would work like this: a white guy who lives in a Tuscaloosa trailer park, a hispanic guy from the Bronx, and a poor black guy from Decatur all apply to the same school. All three have identical grades and SAT scores. Instead of choosing automatically choosing the hispanic guy because he's hispanic, for example, the school would select whoever comes from the poorest background. If that's the white guy, so be it, if it's the black guy, so be it. Sounds pretty fair to me, since schools can't accept everybody.

Right on, Piddzilla.. I mean Steve. The only thing this affirmative action system is leading to is an affirmative of racism. Like Steve said, it is a money issue and race NOR gender should not even be taken into consdieration.