Reply to Affirmative Action should be income-based, not race-based

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[quote=Anonymous]Not sure why people are talking about slavery and oppression in this thread on how to apply AA.  
Affirmative Action is available for people coming from Africa first generation. They have never been slaves. They are immigrants just like everyone else in this country. Why should they benefit from a suffering they have never experienced??? I am first generation American. What do I have to do with slavery??  Why would a recent immigrant from Jamaica (upper middle class kid) or Somalia be entitled to a spot in college over my friend whose parents came from Greece 25 years ago?? This has nothing to do with slavery!

So yes, there is still racism in this country --- but AA is not the answer to it. In fact, it makes the problem worse because people feel cheated and it diminishes the accomplishments of those who truly deserved their scholarships/hire/....

I am sorry if someone's feeling are hurt when some old ladies (black? white?) clutch their purse when your son comes in the store. It sucks but that does not entitle you to anything. First, you have no idea why they are behaving this way: maybe they were just robbed by someone who looked like your son, maybe their gesture has nothing to do with him, maybe they didn't even see him and are reaching out to their purses for some unrelated reasons. You have no ideas. You are just [b] projecting your own prejudices[/b] onto these women. 
And even if it was true that they are racist who don't see your son as an individual but as the represent of his race (which is BTW what you are doing to them),  this alone  does not give you or him the right to say that "we" (and by "we" I mean everyone in this country) owe you something because of it.

Income is a different story. Harvard claims to be diverse but less than 5% of their incoming class comes from a middle class/lower middle class background. All the kids there (all colors/all races/all religions) have similar upper-middle class experiences. How is that diverse?? 
So yes, AA  should be income-based. Give kids who don't stand a chance the opportunity to advance. Most of the time, these [b]will [/b]actually be black kids but not always. That is the point. It should be obvious that Obama's daughters don't need more help to advance than the white son (white and male!!) of an unemployed factory worker in middle America. [/quote]

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