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2/26/2003 08:52:00 AM | Jared Alessandroni Affirmative Action First of all, I didn't know we let Canadians post to the blog. Dood, what if he's a spy? Anyway, about affirmative action, I thought that in its purest form, affirmative action is supposed to be just making sure that minority groups aren't being pissed on as much as usual. Or, a la OED, action taken to affirm an established policy; spec. positive action by employers to ensure that minority groups are not discriminated against during recruitment or employment. Of course, that's one of those tricky definitions that says a lot and means a little - I'll even accept that it's one of those things that sounds a lot better than it actually is. However, in response to comments about how change needs to happen at lower levels, yes. Of course it does, but this is the kind of change that people have been trying to make since there has been a middle class, and the most obvious explanation for why it hasn't worked can be summed up in a sentence: We need poor people to do our work. Of course, the idea in the 80s was that we'd start redistributing our poor-people need over to Mexico and such places, but it turns out that there still really aren't enough positions in the US for the rest of us. More to the point, the kind of change of which Bider-Hall speaks is not coming any time soon, and, because of the self-perpetuating nature of poverty [if you'll excuse my Oscar Lewis interpretation of the situation] it is clear to most that the change must come from both directions. As for race and affirmative action, I agree with Duquee that it is becoming less and less valid in terms of the creation of social equity. This, of course, brings up a more important question that I don't believe has really been considered here. Dartmouth College, when talking about race, [and in fact, this comes straight from the Furster's mouth], says that it's not about some higher-reaching social goals, it's about academic diversity. That is to say that at a place like this, it's not about poor Cedric or the like [Cedric who is now a right-wing spaz who would probably spit at his former self], but just basically trying to ensure that you can have a class where most of the people aren't Whities or Asians. The validity of this goal must be discussed distinctly from the other loftier ones, I think, and in this case I do think it's valid, because it doesn't even pretend to address the concerns of which both Tim and Nick speak. As for State schools [of which we seem to speak with such disgust!], if their goal is to serve the "people", then they need to find the group that's least likely to succeed and help them out. In my liberal left-wing opinion, that groups is the poor, though the effects of racism and our culture's more couched but nonetheless persistent biases cannot be totally ignored. perma link |
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