3 ms·

I think it comes down to whether you think affirmative action to achieve diversity is good/fair or not. A policy that attempts to avoid a mono cultural student

I think it comes down to whether you think affirmative action to achieve diversity is good/fair or not. A policy that attempts to avoid a mono cultural student body (rich white men) is going to discriminate against someone. Do you exclude women from some jobs because there are more qualified men or does the organization/team/society perform better overall by their inclusion? “Harvard’s class of 2021 is 22.2 percent Asian-American, 11.6 percent Hispanic, 14.6 percent African-American and 2.5 percent Native American or Pacific Islander. That strikes me as a university that is trying to achieve diversity. And it is no bad thing.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/does-harvard-discriminate-against-asian-americans/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/does-harvard-discrimi...

gowld 8y ago
Why do you say "rich white men", when the issue under suit is "Asian-American"? Is there an Asian-American hegemony over wealth and power in the USA?
- chrisbennet 8y ago
  Because diversity goals are usually designed to to keep rich white men from dominating something. Also, by reframing it that way you get to examine whether you think affirmative action to achieve diversity is a good thing separate from whether you think it discriminated against Asians. Of course affirmative action discriminates; and it is going to feel unfair to some people. ”The landmark case that established a legal precedent for affirmative action in higher education was University of California v. Bakke in 1978. Allan Bakke, a white man, was in his mid-30s when he applied to 12 medical schools, including University of California Medical School at Davis. After all of these school rejected him, Bakke sued the school at Davis—which had rejected him twice—because he argued that the school had discriminated against him by admitting students of color with lower medical scores than his. At the time, Davis’ medical school reserved 16 out of 100 spots in each year’s new class for students of color. In that case, the question posed to the court was whether the policy violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” https://www.history.com/news/the-landmark-supreme-court-case-that-upheld-affirmative-action https://www.history.com/news/the-landmark-supreme-court-case...
s3r3nity 8y ago
The problem is that it's really not fair (nor ethical, I would argue) to equate "wealthy" with "white." Conflating any characteristic with race/gender/etc., regardless of how accurate it might be, is stereotyping. I fundamentally have a problem with telling a poor white kid that a (potentially wealthy) asian / hispanic / etc. is more deserving of the spot simply because of the race of which she/he was born (assuming all else equal, like GPA, scores, etc.)

gowld 8y ago

Why do you say "rich white men", when the issue under suit is "Asian-American"? Is there an Asian-American hegemony over wealth and power in the USA?

chrisbennet 8y ago
Because diversity goals are usually designed to to keep rich white men from dominating something. Also, by reframing it that way you get to examine whether you think affirmative action to achieve diversity is a good thing separate from whether you think it discriminated against Asians. Of course affirmative action discriminates; and it is going to feel unfair to some people. ”The landmark case that established a legal precedent for affirmative action in higher education was University of California v. Bakke in 1978. Allan Bakke, a white man, was in his mid-30s when he applied to 12 medical schools, including University of California Medical School at Davis. After all of these school rejected him, Bakke sued the school at Davis—which had rejected him twice—because he argued that the school had discriminated against him by admitting students of color with lower medical scores than his. At the time, Davis’ medical school reserved 16 out of 100 spots in each year’s new class for students of color. In that case, the question posed to the court was whether the policy violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” https://www.history.com/news/the-landmark-supreme-court-case-that-upheld-affirmative-action https://www.history.com/news/the-landmark-supreme-court-case...

s3r3nity 8y ago

The problem is that it's really not fair (nor ethical, I would argue) to equate "wealthy" with "white." Conflating any characteristic with race/gender/etc., regardless of how accurate it might be, is stereotyping. I fundamentally have a problem with telling a poor white kid that a (potentially wealthy) asian / hispanic / etc. is more deserving of the spot simply because of the race of which she/he was born (assuming all else equal, like GPA, scores, etc.)