3 ms·
As an analogy: 1. Life jackets are banned for anyone with brown hair. 2. A very large boat hits an iceberg and sinks. There are a lot of people in the water.
by zacharycohn 3y ago
As an analogy:
1. Life jackets are banned for anyone with brown hair.
2. A very large boat hits an iceberg and sinks. There are a lot of people in the water. None of the brown haired people are allowed life jackets.
3. There is a (for the sake of this silly analogy) rapid discussion, people realize this was probably not a good way to do things, and a new law is passed: people with brown hair are now allowed to wear life jackets!
4. No one gives life jackets to the brown haired people currently in the water.
Just because an unjust law is changed does not mean the people who were previously injured by the law are magically no longer injured.
- vacuity 3y agoTrue, though it's still difficult to just give the brown haired people life jackets (and maybe some drowned already). Affirmative action seems as if the few brown haired people who are easily accessible are given life jackets, and "everyone" is happy. My ideas for reform — better public school infra in poorer communities, blah blah (I expound a bit elsewhere) — certainly would be more difficult but give many more brown haired people access to life jackets. Also, don't forget the other drowning people, even if there aren't so many of them compared to brown haired people.
- concordDance 3y agoThe obvious answer to that seems to be to give everyone in the water without a life jacket a life jacket, regardless of their hair color.