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Race and class are intertwined, which is why class-based affirmative action would still disproportionately benefit minorities without recourse to racial quotas.
If by intertwined you mean there are disparities, fine, they are intertwined. And I don't have a problem with disparate impact as long as the focus isn't on race.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunks_galore
Instead, our current system allows universities to select the best and brightest (and usually wealthiest) blacks to diversify their brochures and leave poor students in the lurch.
That may be the case but think of it this way: If that student is accepted into a college, what's to say he can now learn the study skills, etc. necessary for successfully finishing college? He may drop out and that spot could have gone to someone who would finish.
No, many colleges already have these programs and they offer special services for kids who are smart but may be coming in at a disadvantage (first generation students, low income students, etc). The programs tend to work. Once you get kids past that first transition year things level out.
I think the disconnect comes from parents, etc thinking of college as something their kid has earned by virtue of their grades. But the admissions people are not really looking to reward people, they are trying to assemble a good class. Their job is to fill the class with interesting students that fit the school's culture and whom they think can do the work. The difference between the viewpoints is where the tension is, I think.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunks_galore
Instead, our current system allows universities to select the best and brightest (and usually wealthiest) blacks to diversify their brochures and leave poor students in the lurch.
Now THAT is the truth. I wholeheartedly agree. Most of the minority students going to selective colleges these days are middle class. Very few poor people of any race get in outside a special program, and those programs are kept small if they exist on a campus at all.
If by intertwined you mean there are disparities, fine, they are intertwined. And I don't have a problem with disparate impact as long as the focus isn't on race.
Which is wrong.
Sam, you're terrified of any acknowledgment of race on the part of the state at all.
I don't agree with that.
I simply believe that affirmative action is an ineffective stop-gap solution that allows people to avoid looking at the systemic inequalities in our society.
Unfortunately for you, these inequalities are in large part predicated on racial segregation and the fact that America is still trying to escape the legacy of white supremacy.
What we have now is a milquetoast liberal notion of diversity which assumes that putting a few people of color in the right places will act as a panacea for a wretchedly broken system. When I militate in favor of class-based affirmative action, I don't do it because, like you, I'm afraid to think about race. I do it because I recognize that a vaguely multicultural oligarchy is still an oligarchy.
Please quote these ignored questions you speak of.
Wealthy whites benefit from resources that are unavailable to poor black students.
Per percentage of the population, black people are overwhelmingly more poor than white people and a higher number per individual count of this country.
Is not the bar lowered when wealthy white students score extra points because they have been coached/ tutored to the ACT and SAT?
Is that not affirmative action for whites?
How is legacy admissions not lowering the bar for whites when it affords them an enormous advantage over others.
Is that not affirmative action for whites.
Does this country not have a separate and unequal education system that overwhelmingly benefits white people across the educational spectrum.
You can deny, evade, spin, all you want. The minute you tell me that this is a color blind society and that the wealthy and the majority of top tier colleges are not geared towards wealthy whites and whites in particular, is when a your intellectual capital has been spent.
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