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.

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.

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.

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.