On Affirmative Action

(fm the BC thread "The Dead Hand")

Geeze Louise,
AA needs to be retired, but not condemned

Affirmative Action was always a fraud because it was based on the assumption that discrimination against a particular minority (Blacks) was manifested by a qualified member of that group being unable to obtain entrance into an elite educational institution or find suitable employment. Two generations earlier discrimination against Jews and Blacks had those effects but when AA policies were developed in the 1970s that was not true for Jews, although it has since become more likely to impact them, and was of little impact on Blacks. In fact qualified Blacks are in a Sellers Market where they get to choose among competing institutions to the disadvantage of other groups.

The real impact of discrimination on the Black community was that to few members of the group were qualified to compete for entry into elite institutions and the job market those institutions serve as gate keepers for. The main reasons for that are the poor and discriminatory public educational system that Blacks were and still are subjected to coupled with the debilitating effects of the Welfare State. These are not examples of traditional racism but rather the result of "the soft bigotry of low expectations." The new discrimination is a liberal disease but like the old reactionary discrimination it is chiefly the result of policies advocated for by the Democratic Party.

Affirmative Action has served to cover up the incompetence of the public urban education system and the effects of the breakdown of the family. It has done this by ensuring that unqualified applicants will find places created for them in second or third tier schools and that jobs will be provided in expanding government programs and corporate divisions that do not contribute to the bottom line, except in the negative sense of avoiding government intrusion for violating EEO policy.

The jobs provided in the public schools and expanded post secondary system, which had been threatened by declining enrollments once the Baby Boom bulge passed, helped build support for the project among the White Middle Class, even as the standards in those institutions declined.

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Geeze Louise,
AA served as a bridge to short circuit the generational disadvantages

But it didn't, that is my point. By allowing the competition for qualified candidates among elites to be labeled as AA, which it is not, and by taking the pressure off of the causes of the disadvantage among the average member of the minority community, the majority of the minority so to speak, AA enabled the continuation of discrimination without serving as a real remedy to a real problem.

The real solution to the problems besetting the Black community would include many things but Vouchers would be at the head of the list. Any government policy that worked to weaken the nuclear family would be changed if the best interests of the minorities was most important. As whiskey could explain at length that would threaten policies, such as abortion, that are dear to the hearts of wealthy White women. An expanded military that offers training and opportunity based solely on merit would also be part of a program to really improve the lot of minorities.

I know Habu, "constitutional republic".
Habu and I have agreed I believe to disagree about this point of solipsism. I call the system a Democratic, as opposed to Oligarchic, Republic.