Affirmative action Yay or Nay?

Question

How do you feel about:
-affirmative action
-no college scholarships for Caucasians only but there are ones
specific to other races only?
- the fact people are given jobs, scholarships & promotions when
in some cases, it is not based on merit but only on quotas based
on race?
It is very unfair that jobs are EVER given to ANY less qualified person b/c of some quota. In jobs where our safety is an issue, people who score lower on tests are given jobs over people who scored higher.
How does that make you feel?
That the cop that may have to save your life may have failed the test while the next person got 100%.
How does that make you feel?
Why is it that Caucasians are blamed for discrimination & making other races feel inferior when they- the people who swear they are just as good and may very well be - are the ones who TAKE these handouts - that, to me would be an INSULT- to my abilities- to say by actions -"You can't do this on your own ,so here take it...

Please.No more we did it to them & now it is our turn because well - that is a part of history that we all learned from so to say it is reverse now is just saying society learned nothing. I don't think that is it anyway. And has anyone else noticed that all the people in charge - all the bosses now on every show & movie all have something in common? Is this whole country being eaten alive by some know nothing radical liberals who just adopt somebody else's opinion for a lack of their own? It is sickening - I can't even read a paper or watch the news anymore without seeing something. If the cops held down a crazy *** kicking white man, they would be heros but oh no, here comes that damn Sharpton again - I have had it. I am so sickened by the fact that they say we are equal, just as smart & skilled but can't earn it on that basis - have to take a quota seat. It is so disturbing. I couldn't take something like that knowing it wasn't mine - do they feel we owe them cause that is so sorry..

Reaction to John's answer:
I did not exclude any race or gender when I said it is unfair that ANY job be given to anyone that does not earn said job based on merit & is just given it based on a quota. Your feelings for women not being entitled to certain jobs based on lowered standards is true for some women, if not most. I did not say in my question, at all that I believe it is fair that the standards for women, which are lowered in the jobs you mentioned is fair. But I do feel that some women possess more strength than some males & would be able to compete at the same standards as men. I don't think they are given that chance to do so since most women cannot. However, they do pass their tests & SOME work their asses of as in all races and gender. In AA we are giving it away,giving it to those who fail so I do not believe that your comparison is fair or even comparable. I also feel there is a large prob w. women and maternity leave in said jobs being paid full while not working.

My point about scholarships is not that I wish to create one but the fact that one does not exist. Everything is pro **** and easy and even the state offers more monetary assistance to someone out of work with 10 kids than someone on disability. It is all over - it is rampant - it is overcoming the nation and it is wrong. There is no reason anyone should be given anything for nothing - no work, no jobs, - where is Caucasian history month or the Caucasian Day Parade - can you imagine - it would be racist just like a scholarship would be shown in poor light b/c anything we do that excludes them is racist but not so the other way - police doing their jobs, anything - pick the drama of the week with this crap - it is unbearable. BS lawsuit after BS lawsuit - all trying to get something for nothing. women worked to have the rights we have - to be considered equal and a difference in genetic strength is a different topic, isn't it versus the human mind which is universal.Exceptions 2 that

I do not like liberals - plain and simple - to me you do not know what you are talking about. Everyone has a right but don't exert that right to be a moron and vote senselessly when you don't even know the issues. An uneducated generation of a bunch of dreamers.

Answer 1

Affirmitive action was necessary when it was enacted. It has long since outlived it's usefullness and is actually now hurting minorities. The assumed incompentence creates a glass ceiling and while affirmitive action exists it will be in everybodies mind that the only reason so and so is there is because of affirmitive action and not because of ability. What self respecting human would want to live under a shadow like that?

The facts are in today's market you either hire the best or you sink. Discrimanatory practices will make a company uncompetitive. So affirmitive action only costs taxpayers and companies but provides no benifits.

Affirmitive action is an act of racism by deffinition. It was a crutch for a society learning how to heal devides. Just as a patient who stays on crutchs too long loses the ability to walk so too does affirmitive actual cause racism. It widens racial divides and provides ready fodder for White supremists.

I can think of no positive result of Affirmitive action in the last 10 years. There are plenty of reasons to elimanate it. So my question is why does it still exist?

Answer 2

Depending on how it is done, affirmative action is wrong. Its not "reverse" discrimination, there is no such thing, it is discrimination (just against a majority, a bare majority, but still a majority). I do not agree with quotas, nor, in general think race should be any part of a qualification standard.

However, there is still racism in America (on both sides). Because of this, something does need to be done to prevent this from keeping other races from having an equal oportunity. It is difficult to properly legislate an ideal, which is why it has been done poorly more often than it has been done right. (It also makes for better news when a law doesn't work than when one does...)

As far as your comments about less qualified people getting jobs, the same thing happens for women going into civil service jobs like police, fire departments, and the military. Physical requirements are lowered for them to make it easier for them to pass the requirements. I don't know that this is fair either, but you hear a lot less about this than you do about affirmative action.

As far as scholarships go, they are through private organizations. Technically, you could form a private organization that gave scholarships to only caucasian people, you won't get very good PR becuase it is challenging a taboo, but it wouldn't be illegal.

Answer 3

I'm not a supporter of affirmative action.

But, scholarships given to minority help the school to become more diverse. Thus, being more diverse give all students a better education.

At the US Military Academy, at West Point, foreigners are accepted into the school. An Iraqi student was admitted this year because he brings insight to the school. Insight ONLY an Iraqi can bring to the school. He was admitted not base on merit but mainly because he was an Iraqi. West Point says that his enrollment does not take a seat away from American citizen students. Is his insight important? I think so. Try fighting a war without knowing the culture or the land. The military wants minorities because they understand the language, the culture, the land, religion, etc more than what a professor could teach.

Diversity is important.

Answer 4

What goes around, comes around. Whites had their time and in that time treated other races very poorly. Now, we are getting back two-fold. Try sending your child to college..no, wait..try finding the scholarship money to send any natural born white American child to college. It is a daunting task.

I have always believed that the best person for the job should win it and then through hard work keep it. But as you so astutely pointed out, that is not the logical way it all works today.

How does it make me feel? Angry, confused and somewhat amused at how our wonderful country has lost its ability to use common sense and fairness.

Answer 5

Racism is the one problem that this country has not dealth with. We like to tell ourselves that we have dealt with racism and that we have fixed many problems, but in reality, all we've done is pretend to be busy. Whites are NOT encouraged to truly learn about non-White cultures. Non-White cultures are not encouraged to seek positions of equality WITH whites, and so the cultural divides that we are supposed to be fighting against are the cultural divides the continue to separate us.

Affirmative action is similar to the social programs that have lead to the creation of Black ghettos. In an effort to SHOW that white Americans actually DO care about racial problems in this country, Non-Whites have been put in positions in which true equality will never be achieved becuase we have been told that we don't have to do anything in order to GAIN that equality. We don't have to work for it. As far as African Americans are concerned, this has done nothing but cripple the African American community, and Affirmative Action has done nothing but tell us that all we have to to is be black and we get handouts. For those of us who strive for positions of equality, we will never know if we received that equality based on our merit. This is highly offensive for a Black person.

On the flipside of this, it punishes whites who ARE qualified for positions whithin jobs and neighborhoods, but it does absolutely NOTHING to fix the problem of discriminatory whites taking advantage of their own skin color. And the problem is that we should deal with THEM and not punish the larger number of honest whites who have become as much a victim of the situation here as the non-whites that affirmative action is supposed to protect.

In a nutshell, affirmative action has done nothing more than create MORE victims of discrimination than ever and ultimately, it does nothing more than fuel the racial tensions that already exist because it's little more than the "appearance" of fixing a problem that hasn't even been looked at.

Answer 6

well let me see.. I have never been a person to say much on this but when my daughter was in High school an was skipped for a 10,000.00 minority scholarship because she didnt have the correct last name..there were 5 of them... all five had a hundred and above averages..every single one with minorty last names got a scholarship ..(latin) or (hispanic)..but her/// she didnot receive one.. .I am her mother and I am hispanic but her father is white ..so she has a white surname..she graduated third in her class..but didnot get one due to her surname. but when the affirmative action came out ..and all these graduates will want to go to this certain Law School ..guess who will get in first....(Wink Wink)...what goes around comes around.. but now I think She has a Masters Degree and she did it with alot of hard work and effort..and no one had to pay her way...God Blesses you all the time...

Answer 7

Affirmative action is compensatory discrimination. It would be much better to start helping out minority communities from Head Start on so that they can be TRULY competitive. I think classism is taking over as the new racism, anyway. Is that any better?

Answer 8

Affirmative Action is reverse discrimination.

Answer 9

its a way to pacify them.