4 ms·
The issue here is that affirmative action conflates two separate things. One element of affirmative action is correction for economic disenfranchisement. You're
by Locke1689 14y ago
The issue here is that affirmative action conflates two separate things. One
element of affirmative action is correction for economic disenfranchisement.
You're right that maybe we should look at this more broadly and attempt a more
race-neutral approach.
However, the second horn seeks to correct for prejudice and descrimination, not
poverty. This is not necessarily heavy-handed correction, like quotas, either.
For example, one of the most effective instances is the enforcement of
blind auditions for orchestras. Almost immediately after the rule was
instituted, the demographics of major US orchestras shifted hugely. The point is
to correct for latent, perhaps even unconcious, descrimination.
To understand how even unconcious descrimination can be self-reinforcing,
consider someone hiring a new software developer. If they have a team of
middle-class white male software developers and a middle class white male
software developer applies, they have to give almost no thought to how they will
integrate with the team. Sure, there are your corner cases, but we all share a
lot of the same cultural background. With vulnerable groups, it's not the same.
It requires some thought. Since we all don't like to expend mental energy on
something we're not really thrilled about doing in the first place (reading
resumes, interviewing, hiring), it's just so much easier to pick the white
male and be done with it. By putting counterbalances in place we don't have to
actually favor anybody, we just have to reduce the forcing function in the
system that pushes us towards the status quo.
- jivatmanx 14y agoI don't think there is a greater aversion to blacks or Indians than there is to Asians. Should Asians be advantaged? For college admissions, they are actually considered more privileged than whites because they score so highly on tests. As others have pointed out, and as I agree with, affirmative action is for recompensing past wrongs against Blacks and Indians, who suffered slavery and Genocide, respectively. But what about Hispanics? The affirmative action for them is entirely economic (they are poorer in general).
- clicks 14y agoSorry, a small off-topic question: why did you again and again misspell 'discrimination'? You sound too educated to make the mistake -- and I'm not aware of any alternative spellings of the word. So, why did you spell it that way? I'm just genuinely curious.
- Locke1689 14y agoHaven't noticed that I often do -- every once in a while I will misspell a word because the correct spelling "looks wrong." I've noticed that it often feels like the effects of semantic satiation[1] -- perhaps the two are cognitively related? Usually I will catch it when I have a spell checker on hand, but I didn't when I was writing that comment. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
- clicks 14y agoI think you were maybe drawing some parallels with the word "decriminalization" in your mind -- which makes sense, because the word is being used a lot (with news of marijuana regulation and such).