Obama Downplays Campaign's Racial Factor - AP
A Question Of Race Vs. Class - Washington Post
Barack Obama can soft-shoe around the issue of affirmative action for his two daughters if he wants, and this might be well and good for this stage of his candidacy. However, his words do not mitigate the fact that at least two ‘little’ issues in this scenario remain unaddressed.
The first issue is that affirmative action is arbitrary in applying to his rich kids and to poor black kids as well, while ignoring poor and deserving non-blacks. In this way, AA does more damage than good because many more blacks are injured by a resentful society of whites, still largely in control. Their bad attitudes prevail after more than a generation of getting short-changed, amidst black malaise.
The second issue is that regardless of rich or poor, the ‘plus-factor’ points handed out by admissions committees cannot translate into academic performance on par with kids who earned their place, via the textbook trenches. Whether as legacies or AA admits, mediocre grades follow arbitrarily placement in classrooms over their academic heads.
So, in the end, America is left to guess at what Mom and Pop Obama really believe about themselves and all the folks who either want to keep or jettison affirmative action. The soft-shoe may work for now, but dancing in the middle of the road ultimately sets up two-way road kill.
James C. Collier
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Technorati Tags: Obama Downplays Campaign's Racial Factor,A Question Of Race Vs. Class, Barack Obama, Politics, Racism, Affirmative Action, Acting White
6 comments:
You'd get no argument from me. There is a simple statement to Affirmative Action. That it is a social service that can not be abolished until you abolish the social norms that make it necessary.
One social norm amongst the many is discrimination.
You know Feild has those feild and house metaphors. In that, where do you think Obama is heading to get a vote. He should realize before he treats toward the house that he is furthering the distance from some people.
-=t=-
Affirmative action benefits many people from a plethora of racial groups (in fact affirmative action has helped the Asian community in a number of ways), people from a lower class and women. You seem to think (may be because you watch to much television) that affirmative action is some sort of reverse racism that favors black people and in that thinking you are completely false. In this society, where 95% of top corporate executives are white males, affirmative action is desperately needed. You also implied that affirmative action rewards the mediocrity of some black people. Well, and this definitely isn’t a surprise to me, you are wrong once again. If affirmative action was that advantageous to black people many more educated black people would be apart of the corporate world AND many more black people with degrees would NOT be without employment (common sense will tell you that).
Do some research.....
http://www.now.org/issues/affirm/talking.html
http://www.iupui.edu/~aao/myths.html
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/readroom/articles/affirm.htm
We will have to agree to disagree on this one, at least in some parts.
I really wouldn’t care how “resentful” whites are about Affirmative Action, I’m resentful about 400 years of slavery followed by Jim Crow and Separate but Unequal up until about 1970.
The fact is, mainstream universities DID discriminate against qualified blacks, and the way this “Affirmative Action” was applied was to rectify that problem, albeit, there should have been more focus on making sure that from grades K-12 African American children were being better prepared to compete collegiately.
So I say, sure, I’d be willing to give up “Affirmative Action” in universities, when predominately Black grade schools, middle schools and High schools are better funded AND have curriculums put in place that help these students prepare for college.
Black Parents need to hold their school districts accountable first and foremost.
dj black adam: Practically speaking, I 'care' about whites inasmuch as they have power to inflict damage on blacks as a group, and they do. If blacks were advancing from AA, I would gladly accept the trade-off. But as you say, we get defeated in K-12, long before AA can help us. Part of that K-12 defeat is fueled by resentment in the hands of whites. Its a catch-22 and we are getting the short-end of deal, by an unwillingness to trade a non-working solution for one the WILL work. Thanks.
Hello James:
I do understand the practicality in looking at the political, social and in some cases physical actuality of damage that whites can inflict on African Americans as a group, I just think those that will and want to do such damage, will and want to with or without AA programs. That being said, it is my assertion, that if the African American community demanded accountability within the communities that they have some control over (for example Chicago's west and south side and south suburbs) regarding in particular the curriculums of the schools their children go to, the better prepared this children would be, AT WHICH POINT, the Affirmative Action straw man can be put to bed when Blacks begin to out perform Whites.
I say it is a straw man, because with Black (especially Black Male) student retention so low, I can't really fathom the white backlash and anger over "affirmative action", it seems they are more angry with the idea of corrected past wrongs than the actuality of Affirmative Action programs.
Just from my observations.
Race-based affirmative action is simply PC racism. And is a big reason why we must outsource more and more these days to higher-qualified Asian meritocracies...
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