Do you support Race base AA

[angus]

Hell no!  Ever had one of your students come up to you and say she didn't get into Harvard because they had their quota of Asians this year already?  No?  I have.  And they need more seats for black and brown "B" students.  Sorry, no more "A" students this year at Harvard.  We have all the India and China people we need.  Screw that.  I'll fight ya over that.  It's immoral, it's wrong.  It's bigoted toward blacks and hispanics, and puts whites and asians in a very awkward position.  It's anti-egalitarian.  This must end!  Today!

[angus]

And after Angus spake the liberals did grow ashamed. And Shelia Jackson Lee did turn to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and she did speak thusly, "What ill hath we wrought? Surely we must needs rectify this, acoording to the words of angus." And Ruth Bader Ginsburg did reply thusly, "Whatsoever could have prompted these misdeeds? Yea, verily we must needs set this aright". And so it was that it did end, today.

I agree with you completely, its a nasty, nasty system. In the end it screws the blacks and Latin Americans over much more completely than the whites and Asians, though, because every time someone sees a "disadvantaged minority" in a position of authority, they wonder "did they get their through their own sweat and talent, or were they given it because of melanin levels?" In this way it actually encourages continued discrimination.

okay, I was in a prosyletizing mood yesterday.  I'll try to watch my language in the future.  But the sentiment was real, and I'm happy to learn that at least the majority of posters on this excellent forum have given this serious issue some real thought.

We have race problems in this society, no doubt.  And blacks and sometimes females are underrepresented in white-collar fields such as science, medicine, engineering, and law.  But two wrongs don't make it right.  That was my only point.

[angus]

I'm reminded that the passage of proposition 209 in California technically put an end to legalized bigotry (aka affirmative action) in this state about five years ago.  When 209 was passed all the authoritarian/liberal types complained that, "Now, on campus you'll no longer have diversity.  Without raced-based admissions you'll end up with 19 thousand asians and one thousand white jews."  I forget who said that, but I remember reading it in the papers.  Well, has that happened?  I don't think so.  At UCB there are 20 thousand students of all stripes and colors and they got in based on their grades, test scores, and letters of recommendation.  This is as it should be.  If meritocracy works for California, it can work for the United States.  Or, as the President said, "We need to end the soft bigotry of low expectations."