3 ms·

It's almost like being on the giving vs. receiving end of hundreds of years of enforced racial and economic disparities are two totally separate concepts. Weir

It's almost like being on the giving vs. receiving end of hundreds of years of enforced racial and economic disparities are two totally separate concepts. Weird indeed.

tuesdayrain 6y ago
Fighting historic racism with some kind of new age racism that goes in the opposite direction isn't the answer. It's what creates a cycle of hate.
manigandham 6y ago
Racial discrimination is discrimination, regardless of which race is targeted.
- toomanyrichies 6y ago
  True, and that would be relevant to the discussion if "affirmative action"-based admissions decisions were equivalent to reverse racism. But they aren't. Many arguments against affirmative action are based on the idea that we should judge people on their merits. And I'd agree with that- we absolutely should. The problem is that this is neither current practice, nor historical practice, nor even achievable, at least in American society. It's been demonstrated that CVs from people with ethnic-sounding names are binned to a greater extent than people with white-sounding names in job hirings, admission decisions, etc. There's a non-trivial difference between someone who loses out on a college admissions decision because of affirmative action, vs. someone who has been systematically subject to racist policies at a micro and macro level all their lives.
  - manigandham 6y ago
    There's no such thing as "reverse" racism. It's just racism, which is discrimination by race. We should only judge people on merits. Even if it's not perfect today, we should progress towards it through better procedures, training and evolution; not regress backwards into more racial-based policies. And it's definitely achievable, just like plenty of non-white minorities have achieved the highest posts in every level of society, including the presidency. You will never solve racial issues by introducing more dependence on race. As a foreign-born immigrant minority who is now a proud US citizen, I don't need or want your racial affirmative action. I'm fine letting my work and actions speak for themselves.

It's almost like being on the giving vs. receiving end of hundreds of years of enforced racial and economic disparities are two totally separate concepts. Weird indeed.

tuesdayrain 6y ago

Fighting historic racism with some kind of new age racism that goes in the opposite direction isn't the answer. It's what creates a cycle of hate.

manigandham 6y ago

Racial discrimination is discrimination, regardless of which race is targeted.

toomanyrichies 6y ago
True, and that would be relevant to the discussion if "affirmative action"-based admissions decisions were equivalent to reverse racism. But they aren't. Many arguments against affirmative action are based on the idea that we should judge people on their merits. And I'd agree with that- we absolutely should. The problem is that this is neither current practice, nor historical practice, nor even achievable, at least in American society. It's been demonstrated that CVs from people with ethnic-sounding names are binned to a greater extent than people with white-sounding names in job hirings, admission decisions, etc. There's a non-trivial difference between someone who loses out on a college admissions decision because of affirmative action, vs. someone who has been systematically subject to racist policies at a micro and macro level all their lives.
- manigandham 6y ago
  There's no such thing as "reverse" racism. It's just racism, which is discrimination by race. We should only judge people on merits. Even if it's not perfect today, we should progress towards it through better procedures, training and evolution; not regress backwards into more racial-based policies. And it's definitely achievable, just like plenty of non-white minorities have achieved the highest posts in every level of society, including the presidency. You will never solve racial issues by introducing more dependence on race. As a foreign-born immigrant minority who is now a proud US citizen, I don't need or want your racial affirmative action. I'm fine letting my work and actions speak for themselves.