Quote:
Originally Posted by n david
AA based on race is reverse racism, plain and simple. When the government or educational institutions require quotas or AA, in most cases they pass over the more qualified individual in favor of a person who's major qualification is dark skin. It's reverse racism and extremely unfair to those who work hard, study hard and are disqualified based on skin color.
I've heard people talk about paying african americans a settlement as reparations for the slave trade. While I believe racism and the slave trade to be abhorrent and sinful, I don't believe paying money to a race of people for something that happened hundreds of years ago is the answer. The biggest reason is there are likely millions in the US whose ancestors had nothing to do with the slave trade. My ancestors had nothing to do with the slave trade - so why should I have to pay for something we had no part in? Yes, it was terrible and I wish we could erase the sick stain from our history, but financial reparations are not the way to deal with it.
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n david. I told myself I was going to stay out of this thread now. I've come to realize that with issues of race, it is easy to be misunderstood and misrepresented and that there are often deep emotions that few know about. I also know that most of what I would say is a waste of time because people tend to have their opinions set in stone already and there is usually very little room left for another perspective or for the notion that one person's reality may not be another's.
However, I will wade back in just a little. Trying to tie Affirmative Action into just slavery alone is a mistake. AA was designed to address very real and very institutionalized discrimination much, much, much more recently. What is sad to me that this was ever a necessity in our society. We can argue whether it is absolutely necessary today, but I don't think that anyone can argue that it wasn't necessary in the not-too-distant past.
Now I'm really going to test the waters:
I recognize that there are many white people who now feel like the system is unfair to them because there is a
small portion of some instituation and opportunities that may not be available to them. This is a good starting point for dialogue. Multiply that reality and sentiment by 100 and extrapolate it over decades and generations. That may give some insight into what fuels a lot of emotion.
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