Wife’s Parents are bigots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They voted for

You've gotten some basic facts wrong here. Obama spent two years at Occidental, and then transferred to Columbia University. From there he went to Harvard Law School, not Yale. It's hard to take you seriously when you are wrong about facts like that.

Yep. I thought the same thing. Though a transfer to Columbia from a place like Occidental isn't very common and could arguably have been very difficult without affirmative action or some other more influential strings being pulled.

[Anonymous]

Oops. Yeah I was wrong about Harvard. Sorry. But this doesn't change my assertion that sometimes affirmative action helps people, is necessary, and could even have been a factor in Obama's admission into prestigious schools. Maybe it wasn't. But why is this inherently negative to say this? If it's true, it should be an example of why affirmative action is a good thing. Not a slight to Obama. It confuses me when people use this as a slight--which is totally what OPs inlaws were doing by bringing it up this way..."He was ONLY president because of affirmative action" is an insult.
But if he was admitted to Columbia as a result of aa, big deal? Especially when that is literally what affirmative action is designed to do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They voted for Trump and loathed Obama. At one point one of them yelled at the TV when he was still in office saying he only got there because of Affirmative action. How do you deal with that?

Not by calling them names on the internet because they don't think the way you do. It's Easter. Settle down.

I know you're angry OP, but some things you might want to consider is this:
Affirmative Action does and has helped people, including Obama--who was a C student at Occidental and then got into Yale Law School. (I realize that your parents meant this as a derogatory comment, but the fact is, he went on to do very well at Yale, even making Law Review, etc. so affirmative action actually did what it was designed to do there, which is give a boost to someone who could then use it to maximize opportunities that were not previously available.)

Also, your inlaws may well be bigots--I'm not disputing that. But there are some weird circumstances surrounding the birther nonsense that most people don't know is legit. It's bizarre, but the marketing materials for his first book that was published and distributed by his own publisher to promote his book describe him as Kenyan-born in the author bio. Maybe it was a mistake that he never bothered to correct while the his very first book was being promoted? (Though most academic publishers have the author write their own bios in 3rd person for these types of things). So more likely, he thought it would make him seem more colorful and interesting to say he was Kenyan-born--as this was pretty early in his career and he probably didn't have presidential aspirations at that time. So even though we know now that this isn't true that he was born in Kenya, I found it fascinating to discover that this wasn't just a nasty rumor created out of thin air by people who didn't like him or who were racist. The claim appears right there in his own bio. He had to know it was there for like 20 years before it was "corrected" as an error by the publisher. I think he knew it was there and it served a purpose at the time. And this is almost never discussed.

My point is that just because people have different opinions on things doesn't dictate their motive for thinking differently. I know it's easier to cry "bigot" but sometimes there is another less sinister reason for someone not to feel the same way you do about something.

I would be curious to know if OP’s ILs also had strong feelings on presidents who benefited from legacy admissions (Bush, Roosevelt, etc). I personally think AA and legacy both serve a useful purpose.

Also I had something published in my field that said I graduated in a different year than I did. I reviewed it myself before publication and still didn’t notice. I don’t think the Kenya-born thing is really some overlooked smoking gun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They voted for Trump and loathed Obama. At one point one of them yelled at the TV when he was still in office saying he only got there because of Affirmative action. How do you deal with that?

Not by calling them names on the internet because they don't think the way you do. It's Easter. Settle down.

I know you're angry OP, but some things you might want to consider is this:
Affirmative Action does and has helped people, including Obama--who was a C student at Occidental and then got into Yale Law School. (I realize that your parents meant this as a derogatory comment, but the fact is, he went on to do very well at Yale, even making Law Review, etc. so affirmative action actually did what it was designed to do there, which is give a boost to someone who could then use it to maximize opportunities that were not previously available.)

Also, your inlaws may well be bigots--I'm not disputing that. But there are some weird circumstances surrounding the birther nonsense that most people don't know is legit. It's bizarre, but the marketing materials for his first book that was published and distributed by his own publisher to promote his book describe him as Kenyan-born in the author bio. Maybe it was a mistake that he never bothered to correct while the his very first book was being promoted? (Though most academic publishers have the author write their own bios in 3rd person for these types of things). So more likely, he thought it would make him seem more colorful and interesting to say he was Kenyan-born--as this was pretty early in his career and he probably didn't have presidential aspirations at that time. So even though we know now that this isn't true that he was born in Kenya, I found it fascinating to discover that this wasn't just a nasty rumor created out of thin air by people who didn't like him or who were racist. The claim appears right there in his own bio. He had to know it was there for like 20 years before it was "corrected" as an error by the publisher. I think he knew it was there and it served a purpose at the time. And this is almost never discussed.

My point is that just because people have different opinions on things doesn't dictate their motive for thinking differently. I know it's easier to cry "bigot" but sometimes there is another less sinister reason for someone not to feel the same way you do about something.

I would be curious to know if OP’s ILs also had strong feelings on presidents who benefited from legacy admissions (Bush, Roosevelt, etc). I personally think AA and legacy both serve a useful purpose.

Also I had something published in my field that said I graduated in a different year than I did. I reviewed it myself before publication and still didn’t notice. I don’t think the Kenya-born thing is really some overlooked smoking gun.

I'm the PP who posted about that story and I agree. I also don't think it is an overlooked "smoking gun" to prove a birther argument at all. The more logical explanation is that it was either an error OR a purposely-placed false detail to make him sound like he had a cooler more interesting background at the time. It just surprised me (and I found it curious) that the whole "born in Kenya" thing had once been part of his bio and not simply a racist malicious rumor pulled from thin air based only on the idea that his dad was from Kenya, and that most people do not know this.

[Anonymous]

Op here

The mom jumped in anger at a Fox News segment and yelled “Affirmative Action, Affirmative action” so yes, I take that as racist. It wasn’t in a calm demeanor and it was certainly meant in a deragotay way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here

The mom jumped in anger at a Fox News segment and yelled “Affirmative Action, Affirmative action” so yes, I take that as racist. It wasn’t in a calm demeanor and it was certainly meant in a deragotay way.

Maybe she’s doing everything humanly possible to rid the family of an insufferable twit.

[Anonymous]

Yes affirmative action is alive and well. Get over it.

New thing even cooler than affirmative action is filling your college with “first in their family to ever go to college” students. Those like the women’s studies, Hispanic studies majors and then go work for similar nonprofits.