2 ms·

"It cites third-party academic research on the SAT exam showing that Asian-Americans have to score on average about 140 points higher than white students, 270 p

"It cites third-party academic research on the SAT exam showing that Asian-Americans have to score on average about 140 points higher than white students, 270 points higher than Hispanic students and 450 points higher than African-American students to equal their chances of gaining admission to Harvard. The exam is scored on a 2400-point scale." It's odd that affirmative action is basically basing everything on color of your skin and not the content of your character. I was under the impression that it was supposed to prevent this.

adventured 11y ago
The entire point of affirmative action was to provide unearned opportunities based on the color of your skin. With the theory being that over time it would help boost the well being of minorities (at the time mostly African Americans). That by forcing open opportunities, the next generation would do better, and the generation after that would do even better, and so on.
- calibraxis 11y ago
  "Affirmative action programs" differ. But in general, they're to control the racism of gatekeepers, these bureaucrats who choose who gets a decent education. There are better solutions. For instance: free lifelong quality education to all. But naturally, elites would rather waste society's wealth on wars (international killing) and prisons (the most jailings in the world)... than silly things like knowledge and healthcare. Affirmative action is a modest, successful effort to chip away at the self-destructive inequalities of society. Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves.
  - cbd1984 11y ago
    > Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves. Asians have white privilege now? We can certainly see what your Officially Not Racist biases are.
  - cbd1984 11y ago
    > Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves. Since when do Asians have white privilege?
- themartorana 11y ago
  At the expense of other individuals. I personally don't believe affirmative action continues to serve its original purpose, although I've always been against it and gender discrimination as well. I only have one life. Being told it's ok that I was denied an opportunity because I'm white and I'll be ok is easier to abstract into a broad formula, but harder to take when, on merit alone, I'd be given that opportunity and my life as a human being would be better for it. Affirmative action was arguably a way to accelerate towards true unbiased judgement, but any purpose it served has run its course and now it's rather harmful, IMHO.

adventured 11y ago

The entire point of affirmative action was to provide unearned opportunities based on the color of your skin. With the theory being that over time it would help boost the well being of minorities (at the time mostly African Americans). That by forcing open opportunities, the next generation would do better, and the generation after that would do even better, and so on.

calibraxis 11y ago
"Affirmative action programs" differ. But in general, they're to control the racism of gatekeepers, these bureaucrats who choose who gets a decent education. There are better solutions. For instance: free lifelong quality education to all. But naturally, elites would rather waste society's wealth on wars (international killing) and prisons (the most jailings in the world)... than silly things like knowledge and healthcare. Affirmative action is a modest, successful effort to chip away at the self-destructive inequalities of society. Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves.
- cbd1984 11y ago
  > Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves. Asians have white privilege now? We can certainly see what your Officially Not Racist biases are.
- cbd1984 11y ago
  > Naturally, many try to attack it to claw back more unearned white privilege for themselves. Since when do Asians have white privilege?
themartorana 11y ago
At the expense of other individuals. I personally don't believe affirmative action continues to serve its original purpose, although I've always been against it and gender discrimination as well. I only have one life. Being told it's ok that I was denied an opportunity because I'm white and I'll be ok is easier to abstract into a broad formula, but harder to take when, on merit alone, I'd be given that opportunity and my life as a human being would be better for it. Affirmative action was arguably a way to accelerate towards true unbiased judgement, but any purpose it served has run its course and now it's rather harmful, IMHO.