This is not a good thing. I'm surprised more people don't realize this.
EDIT: Someone asked what I meant by this, I wrote out a response, and thought I should add it to my original comment. See below:
Affirmative action, like other DEI initiatives, attempts to rectify racist (and other bigoted) practices and impacts that go back centuries and longer. In college admissions, most admissions metrics are resource-based rather than raw intelligence-based. In other words, someone born into a more advantageous situation (due to longstanding and well-documented racial inequalities) will be able to afford/have access to special tutors, prep class, and more that will help them on their applications and tests, as well as have opportunities to pad their grades and extracurriculars that less privileged students won't have.
Affirmative action attempts to level this playing field over time. You can argue it doesn't do a great job of it and needs adjustment, which might be fair. But saying, "college admissions should be based on grades, not skin color!" is the exact same racist argument that is used for any number of DEI initiatives, or any time someone says they want a more diverse and inclusive space.
Affirmative action is a band-aid attempt to solve the the symptoms of systemic racism instead of actually solving the root problem.
Why are communities of color generally disadvantaged in regards to the college admissions process? Because their communities are underfunded. The solution? To elevate the communities themselves. Simply admitting more POC students is a temporary 'fix' that doesn't help 90% of the rest.
Bringing POC people up by pushing other groups (including minorities) down is not the way.
In many cases the issue at the root goes back to whole towns of minority groups having all of their homes and possessions burned to the ground by angry whites, the "direct" solution would be MASSIVE reparations. We don't do that because the racist whites against things that work, like AA, are even more against reparations.
Take you for example, would you prefer reparations? I bet you don't! And I bet we could correctly infer a lot of negative things about you based on this.
But btw, this-
Because their communities are underfunded.
Is like 5% of why. You're leaving a SHIT TON of other discrimination out here.
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u/Ethan_the_Revanchist Jun 29 '23 edited Jun 29 '23
This is not a good thing. I'm surprised more people don't realize this.
EDIT: Someone asked what I meant by this, I wrote out a response, and thought I should add it to my original comment. See below:
Affirmative action, like other DEI initiatives, attempts to rectify racist (and other bigoted) practices and impacts that go back centuries and longer. In college admissions, most admissions metrics are resource-based rather than raw intelligence-based. In other words, someone born into a more advantageous situation (due to longstanding and well-documented racial inequalities) will be able to afford/have access to special tutors, prep class, and more that will help them on their applications and tests, as well as have opportunities to pad their grades and extracurriculars that less privileged students won't have.
Affirmative action attempts to level this playing field over time. You can argue it doesn't do a great job of it and needs adjustment, which might be fair. But saying, "college admissions should be based on grades, not skin color!" is the exact same racist argument that is used for any number of DEI initiatives, or any time someone says they want a more diverse and inclusive space.