Do you support Race base AA

[migrendel]

I voted yes. It is long past time for our nation to pay its dues for centuries of racial oppression, and the institutional sequelae that still hang like a stifling miasma over many organizations.

Discrimination against the poor is reprehensible, and should be eliminated, however we must realize that it was not so long ago that Jim Crow reared his ugly head in America, and to a lesser extent, that still happens today. We are far from having solved our conflicts over ancestry in this country.

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And to treat some people equally, we must treat them differently. We cannot- we dare not- let the Fourteenth Amendment perpetuate racial supremacy.

[migrendel]

What that statement was that to achieve equal protection in our society, we must adopt different measures to realize that goal. There has been no prior discrimination against the majority group in America, so therefore they need no affirmative preference to be treated fairly under the law.

[migrendel]

While there is little genetic evidence to support a concept of races, we must recognize that it is a social construct, one so entrenched in our thinking that it will be a vital creature of our thoughts for years to come. My only hope is that greater exposure to people of other races, aided by affirmative action, can help break down those barriers.

[migrendel]

Are you really, Flyers2004, going to attempt to analogize the plight of the slaves, who were property when brought to this country after being kidnapped, to Irish Americans, who had the benefit of speaking English, not being owned, and not being denied the right to vote as recently as forty years ago?

[migrendel]

Voting Rights Act? If you want to go back further, the Fifteenth Amendment? Give me a break. There is still political disenfranchisement, as well as discrimination. Slavery has nothing to do with this program, considering that it is designed to respond to contemporary disparities, but Flyers brought up ancestry, so I had to enter that terrain.

And Nym, there might not be a scientific definition of race, but there sure as Hell is a social one.

[migrendel]

I cannot help but point out that such differentials are far outweighed by the importance of greater minority representation, and that's not to say that the minority was a total boob, either. The credentials indicate that the minority had a head on his shoulders.

[migrendel]

I didn't hear of those incidents. What happened?

[migrendel]

You're probably right, Nym. But the principle of discarding remedial measures based upon race troubles me.