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Bogtrotter07
Guest
The view among the IE Progressive Party seems to be: quotas today, quotas tomorrow, quotas forever!
Also, if being clothed and housed is the issue, then why not have income-based affirmative action? Race-based affirmative action tends to benefit the wealthiest people within each group. Race is not a simple proxy for poverty in these cases.
As IrishLax described above, these quota systems leads to resentment among many people who do not get the benefits, regardless of their race:
This is the other problem. Black students at Caltech know that they deserve to be there because of their intellectual ability, not because of their race.
As anyone is who favors such a silly, dogmatic perspective, you are reduced to calling people names (as you see it), and lumping people with a plethora of other perspectives into one group. That is the core definition of the kind of one-dimensional, stereotypical thought that leads to racism, classism, and sexism.
I always want to ask people that say 'my best friend is,' or, 'I have lots of _______ (fill in the blank) friends,' "Do you realize that there are personality types, people with behavioral issues, or other types of mental illness that only have friends to whom they consider themselves superior?" And if someone vehemently denies that possibility, I like to follow up with, "Well, which option is true in your case?"
It's very simple: I support one standard for everyone. No lowering of standards for the gifted program so that more blacks and Hispanics get in, no lowering of standards for the Marines so more women can get in, etc. That is 'equal opportunity.'
Have everyone take a test, without their name or race attached to it, and set some threshold score above which any student is admitted to the gifted program. One threshold. No quotas.
Any healthy person would support allowing any person that they didn't want to hamstring the ability to stand, and think on their own.
But an across the board insistence on that strategy is preposterous! There is mental illness, physical impairment, social stigma, PTSD from serious abuse, and hundreds of reasons a given individual may not be able to be dropped into a situation with open competition.
I mean, do you understand the absolute insanity of that position? I am not saying you are insane, by any stretch; no, I have also heard it repeated by the over-privileged, over-fed, over-indulged, until that mantra becomes perceived like truth. But anyone can look, listen, observe, and think for themselves and see how ignorant it really is.
The goal is to get to even competition across the board. But achieving it will only actually happen in a perfect world. Which we don't have.
So, if those who have been in the trenches, who have actually tried to help alleviate these problems, want to try something to help heal some of those not able to compete, lumping them all as 'quota-ists' is just another way of behaving in a stereotypical way.
Suggesting modification in methods, or a shift in the paradigm, are different. It is necessary for evolution and growth, socially and personally. But it is not decrying some initiative because it has weaknesses without providing an alternative, or even admitting the problem exists it was intending to alleviate.
And if you think the problem isn't still raging, come to me and visit East St. Louis, or near south-side Chicago sometime.