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We absolutely need affirmative action, based on race, based on gender, and based on ANY disenfranchised group. Corporations and colleges are still biased again

We absolutely need affirmative action, based on race, based on gender, and based on ANY disenfranchised group. Corporations and colleges are still biased against race, because the demographics of corporations do not reflect the population as a whole, and if they were hiring correctly, they would. On other words - if 20% of the general population of 300 million people is a certain race, it stands to reason that corporations and colleges should mirror that. But they do not. The applicant ration is the same, but the actual hiring ratio is much, much smaller. Where do work? In an office? Stand up and look around and tell me if 20% of your coworkers are black. It should be pretty close. It isn't. No engineer or mathematician would argue this - if everyone hired entirely based on qualifications your workforce would directly represent the population at large. Law of averages in a perfectly unbiased hiring world would make this so.

brianchu 14y ago
Saying that the demographics of colleges/corporations don't match those of colleges directly is evidence of racism is a logical leap that is completely false. Right now colleges already practice affirmative action. Yet African Americans are still underrepresented. Why? African-Americans on average have lower incomes and thus lower high school educational attainment. You should be treating the root cause (low-income) instead of implementing a plan that benefits the children of well-off African-Americans and the children of African immigrants to a greater degree than it benefits the children of low-income African-Americans (because those kinds of African-Americans are more likely to meet the minimum qualifications and benefit from the extra boost of affirmative action), a system that also detracts from the opportunities of poor whites and Asian-Americans, as affirmative action is inherently a zero-sum game.
iy56 14y ago
15% of the animal biomass on earth is ants, but I can look in the ocean and find thousands of fish yet very few ants. There are women-only universities, historically black universities, universities that focus on arts and universities that focus on music. Why should the employee demographics of a coal mine be the same as the demographics of a hospice?
ams6110 14y ago
Nationally only 69% of students earn their high school diplomas. Are you suggesting that only 69% of incoming corporate hires should have a high school or higher education in the name of fairness? Where does ability, talent, and motivation come in, or is that not allowed to be considered?

brianchu 14y ago

Saying that the demographics of colleges/corporations don't match those of colleges directly is evidence of racism is a logical leap that is completely false. Right now colleges already practice affirmative action. Yet African Americans are still underrepresented. Why? African-Americans on average have lower incomes and thus lower high school educational attainment. You should be treating the root cause (low-income) instead of implementing a plan that benefits the children of well-off African-Americans and the children of African immigrants to a greater degree than it benefits the children of low-income African-Americans (because those kinds of African-Americans are more likely to meet the minimum qualifications and benefit from the extra boost of affirmative action), a system that also detracts from the opportunities of poor whites and Asian-Americans, as affirmative action is inherently a zero-sum game.

iy56 14y ago

15% of the animal biomass on earth is ants, but I can look in the ocean and find thousands of fish yet very few ants. There are women-only universities, historically black universities, universities that focus on arts and universities that focus on music. Why should the employee demographics of a coal mine be the same as the demographics of a hospice?

ams6110 14y ago

Nationally only 69% of students earn their high school diplomas. Are you suggesting that only 69% of incoming corporate hires should have a high school or higher education in the name of fairness? Where does ability, talent, and motivation come in, or is that not allowed to be considered?