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Yes, but the absolutely most qualified person for a whole bunch of things is disproportionately often white and male. And even if we as a society wake up tomor
by vec 14y ago
Yes, but the absolutely most qualified person for a whole bunch of things is disproportionately often white and male. And even if we as a society wake up tomorrow magically not racist or sexist at all, that will be the case for the foreseeable future simply because white men have disproportionate amounts of money and connections.
Hiring through AA is _intentionally_ suboptimal. The whole point is to give members of disadvantaged communities access to opportunities they are less qualified for in the hope that they, and by extensions their communities, will over time become _less_ _disadvantaged_.
There are more important things in this universe than efficiency.
- clarky07 14y agoInstead we discriminate against the poor white guy from the ghetto growing up with a single mom? Brilliant. That guy had none of the supposed white male advantages. Hire/accept people based on their merits. If you want to take into account overcoming adversity that's fine with me. But picking someone based on the color of their skin, be it white, black, or other, is wrong, and it's racist.
- rayiner 14y agoLet's argue based on aggregate statistics instead of individual situations. I don't see why otherwise rational/scientific people feel the need to debase themselves by talking about edge-case individual examples when it comes to things like this.
- wtvanhest 14y agoIndividual situations are important in this case. It is as much about fairness for the white guy/girl with poor parents who is being discriminated against by his or her government as it is about the African American who is being discriminated against by employers, schools etc. This is obviously a tough issue, but edge cases are important. There is too much noise in the statistics.
- tdfx 14y agoI don't think poor, white people are an edge case. As of 2007, 9.9% of the white, non-hispanic population lived in poverty (compared to 27.6% of black people and 26.6% of hispanics). The numbers are lower, but they are far from edge cases. The source of adversity in the human experience is not solely rooted in race.
- Natsu 14y agoJust curious, but what do you get if you multiply those percentages by the size of those groups?
- clarky07 14y ago~24 mil white ~11 mil black ~14 mil hispanic Imagine that. All kinds of people leaving in poverty and having disadvantaged lives.
- Synthetase 14y agoAfrican Americans constitute 15% of America. White Americans constitute 74% of America. Thus African Americans are more than twice as likely to live under the poverty line. Those are not I odds I would like to gamble with had I been born black. You won a lottery when you were born.
- Natsu 14y agoMerely being born American made us winners in that lottery, if you get down to it. Is anyone really against the idea that all 49 million need help?
- flyinRyan 14y agoYou mean being born a first world country. But there are other first world countries that have better average quality of life than the US.
- jasonwocky 14y ago> But picking someone based on the color of their skin, be it white, black, or other, is wrong In these circumstances, some of us disagree with you.
- danilocampos 14y ago> That guy had none of the supposed white male advantages. Merely looking like those who hold power is, in fact, a huge advantage.
- jshen 14y agoI'm that white guy from the ghetto with a single mom. I'm an executive now, and I'm sure it was easier for me than a black kid from my old neighborhood. Let me change the subject slightly, people who are tall and good looking have more opportunity and success than those that aren't. No one, even you, are making purely rational decisions based on merit. All of us make decisions that are influenced by things we aren't aware of.