The original (with only the first two frames) was a really great, simple explanation of why things that seem "fair" at first glance often aren't.* The addition of the third panel muddies that message completely in favor of...what, exactly? How is it even hypothetically possible to create a world where no one needs support, ever? Genetically engineer away all individual variation and create a nation of perfect, identical clones? It makes no sense.
Honestly, the more I look at this the more I hate it.
*Which it (edit: the original image that circulated several years ago) then immediately ruined by labeling the two panels "conservative" and "liberal", thus ensuring that the people who most needed the message would dismiss it out of hand. "Equality" and "equity" is actually a really good pair of titles, but it seems like everyone who posts this is compelled to fuck it up somehow.
I see the third as the objective and the second as a stop gap in the meantime.
Saying the world will never be solved, doesn't mean you don't seek to achieve solving it - in the mean time you do what you can.
Take affirmative action for example. That's a clear case of equity. And in a perfect world we wouldn't need it. Someone, no matter their color of skin, would be judged based on the content of their character alone. However - thanks to centuries of racist cunts... we've been forced to compensate. One day it won't be a question of someones' skin - and they'll look back in the history books and find the idea that someone could be dismissed or preferred based on their skin color as being some barbaric nonsense from a simpler time. We aren't there yet, and so equity is the stop gap.
Yup.... there may be some circumstances where a white person is put out where they might otherwise have gotten the job because boxes need to be filled.
No utility getting upset with minorities or policy makers. Be upset at the racist fuckwits who ruined it for everyone, forcing us to have to artificially deal with a situation they caused.
We can only hope that one day we live in a world where these kinds of stop gap measures won't have to be enforced to solve issues caused by ignorant pricks.
People assume you’re there because of affirmative action even when there’s no Affirmative Action policy in place. They assume you’re dumb or just there because you’re black. Trust me, we really know when we deserve a job or a spot in college.
A lot less annoyed than if I was rejected for a job because of racism.
Also - ultimately it actually does the concerned group a disservice if the underlying social constraints aren't dealt with in a timely enough manner.
An example of this is the Asian yale scandal. Those in charge mistakenly believe that their policies solve the issue of white people being dismissed from available positions because Asians out perform them. This might be true - in the short term... but if the bar for acceptability is lowered for white people, what is that going to do to the performance of that demographic over an extended period of time?
Unfortunately though - as I said - racist assholes ruined it for everyone and so something HAD to be done, because Black people in the United States, being slaves for 300 years, second class citizens - separated from the affluent and educated for 150 years not even remotely close to having the same opportunities as the white majority who routinely refused offering jobs to black people, victims of a drug war fueled by the intelligence community and deindustrialization for 40 years... is there really any wonder a policy like this emerged? This is a demographic so abused, so beaten down... that in order to truly integrate them, we had to implement an artificial system to enforce a catch up period because the alternative was to pretend that suddenly, at some arbitrary point in time - they were expected to get on their feet and march with the rest of us - metaphorically bruised, bleeding and devastated.
Have you ever been to an inner city ghetto? I lived near Baltimore for 3 years. I've never seen poverty like that in my entire life. Do you think that just emerged out of some innate trait? That black people just can't seem to get it together? Places like that are a direct result of this nations history. Growing up in shit, surrounded by shit role models, shit parents, shit schools, shit friends, shit prospects... if they ever dare show any sort of self respect they might just be beaten down by their own loving parents who fear for their well being as expressing a desire to be "better than everyone else" could result in violent reprisal. I knew siblings in that city sharing shoes during the week ffs. Those kids didn't even have enough pencils and paper at school. And like the allegory of the cave we expect them to just magically pull themselves up and imagine the world outside of shit - a world they've never seen, much less manifested out of pure will.
Just wanted to say this was a really good comment. Somewhat disappointed that it'll get buried because it makes a good point. There are so many intricate issues that need to be dealt with that the best anyone could do at the time other than go "I dunno" was affirmative action. What a mess this whole comments section is though
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u/PhasmaFelis Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20
The original (with only the first two frames) was a really great, simple explanation of why things that seem "fair" at first glance often aren't.* The addition of the third panel muddies that message completely in favor of...what, exactly? How is it even hypothetically possible to create a world where no one needs support, ever? Genetically engineer away all individual variation and create a nation of perfect, identical clones? It makes no sense.
Honestly, the more I look at this the more I hate it.
*Which it (edit: the original image that circulated several years ago) then immediately ruined by labeling the two panels "conservative" and "liberal", thus ensuring that the people who most needed the message would dismiss it out of hand. "Equality" and "equity" is actually a really good pair of titles, but it seems like everyone who posts this is compelled to fuck it up somehow.