The problem with most of our affirmative action policies is not intent, it's that they were created at a time and for a country that doesn't look like ours. The intention for affirmative action was to give more opportunities to Black americans after the civil rights act was passed. The country's makeup at that time was very much black ve…
The problem with most of our affirmative action policies is not intent, it's that they were created at a time and for a country that doesn't look like ours. The intention for affirmative action was to give more opportunities to Black americans after the civil rights act was passed. The country's makeup at that time was very much black versus white in terms of major racial blocs. That isn't the case anymore.
In particular, the massive migration from places like Vietnam and Korea after the wars changed the makeup of our country, and no that's not a moral judgement. It's simply true that post war, lots of people migrated here. Their children, and their children's children, have as a result been competing with other minority groups, because the system that was set up was not designed for lots of different minority groups to exist at once.
So what you end up with is that the very system that exists to help one group ends up harming another. And then you start asking, 'well, what if we just did things on merit?' and we end up back at no affirmative action, and generational decline of populations, which it's meant to combat.
On some level, this is all due to the fact that for various reasons, Asian countries tend to have beliefs towards education that border on the cruel and sadistic; just look at their teen suicide rates. In Japan for example, over half of all people who don't get a job immediately after graduating will never have a job. Places like Singapore and Korea and China all have similar issues with parents overworking their children.
This is less prevalent in America, but it's absolutely true that Asian families often bring their culture with them, same as everyone else. And as a result, lots of Asian students are now competing in quotas against others. Which throws the system into chaos. The purpose of affirmative action was to help those who did not have the resources to get ahead, but it's turned into a question of who gets how much of the pie simply because of how racially diverse our country has become.
Again, I'm not sure there's a real solution to be found. But that's why this problem exists.
I'll buy the issue of intent and the anachronism in application, but add that we need to be careful of too broad generalization. It is one matter to discuss affirmative action (or equity) in pubic high schools, it is an entirely different matter to discuss affirmative action (or holistic admissions) in a private college. One can, with a straight face and clear conscience, support practices for one, but not the other.
The problem with most of our affirmative action policies is not intent, it's that they were created at a time and for a country that doesn't look like ours. The intention for affirmative action was to give more opportunities to Black americans after the civil rights act was passed. The country's makeup at that time was very much black versus white in terms of major racial blocs. That isn't the case anymore.
In particular, the massive migration from places like Vietnam and Korea after the wars changed the makeup of our country, and no that's not a moral judgement. It's simply true that post war, lots of people migrated here. Their children, and their children's children, have as a result been competing with other minority groups, because the system that was set up was not designed for lots of different minority groups to exist at once.
So what you end up with is that the very system that exists to help one group ends up harming another. And then you start asking, 'well, what if we just did things on merit?' and we end up back at no affirmative action, and generational decline of populations, which it's meant to combat.
On some level, this is all due to the fact that for various reasons, Asian countries tend to have beliefs towards education that border on the cruel and sadistic; just look at their teen suicide rates. In Japan for example, over half of all people who don't get a job immediately after graduating will never have a job. Places like Singapore and Korea and China all have similar issues with parents overworking their children.
This is less prevalent in America, but it's absolutely true that Asian families often bring their culture with them, same as everyone else. And as a result, lots of Asian students are now competing in quotas against others. Which throws the system into chaos. The purpose of affirmative action was to help those who did not have the resources to get ahead, but it's turned into a question of who gets how much of the pie simply because of how racially diverse our country has become.
Again, I'm not sure there's a real solution to be found. But that's why this problem exists.
I'll buy the issue of intent and the anachronism in application, but add that we need to be careful of too broad generalization. It is one matter to discuss affirmative action (or equity) in pubic high schools, it is an entirely different matter to discuss affirmative action (or holistic admissions) in a private college. One can, with a straight face and clear conscience, support practices for one, but not the other.