Monday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "NYTs: if affirmative action goes, say buy-bye to legacy, EA/ED, and most athletic preferences" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster links to an article in the New York Times that discusses possible outcomes of an expected overturn or roll back of affirmative action by the Supreme Court. The article warns that the impact of such a decision would be wide-ranging and not entirely predictable. Many programs aimed at building diverse student bodies could be halted, resulting in a decline in college attendance by students of color. The article suggests that in order to maintain diverse student bodies, universities might end programs that have traditionally benefitted the well-to-do such as preferences for children of alumni, early decision admissions, and admissions test requirements. The original poster claims that athletic preferences would also be at risk, but I didn't see any mention of that in the article. There are 19 pages of discussion and I'm not up for reading many of them. This topic has been debated ad nauseam and, as is true of most DCUM threads dealing with race, I generally feel worse off for having read them.

The second thread that I'll discuss was posted in the "Real Estate" forum. Titled, "Real Estate Unaffordable", the original poster laments that prior to the pandemic she couldn't afford houses that she desired. The poster has since received a salary increase, but because housing prices have also increased, she still can't afford the homes. She fears that she will never be able to afford them. I believe the post was meant primarily as a vent and the poster wasn't hoping for anything beyond some supportive responses. While there were such replies, many instead offered suggestions and advice about how the original poster might be able to find an affordable house. The one reply that I was able to easily identify by the original poster roundly rejected the advice. Nevertheless, discussion continued, seemingly without the original poster. Much of the discussion is focused on neighborhoods or towns were there are more affordable housing opportunities. Some posters went so far as to post Zillow links to specific homes. Considerable ire is directed at posters who reject the offered suggestions, with accusations that those posters are unwilling to compromise. There are also several posts analyzing the increase in housing prices and debating whether current trends are unusual or not. For years every thread dealing with real estate prices has drawn posters predicting an imminent price crash. Often posters claim that we are already in the midst of such a crash. However, significant price drops never seem to materialize. But, as posters making such claims in this thread demonstrate, hope remains eternal.

Next is a thread that was originally posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum, but I moved it to the "Childcare other than Daycare and Preschool" forum where I think it is more appropriate. Titled, "Are male babysitters not a thing here", the original poster explains that her family recently moved from Austin to Alexandria, At their previous home, the original poster's 14 year old son had a thriving babysitting business. Now, in Alexandria, he finds few opportunties. Many of those responding cite age as a factor rather than gender that would cause them to avoid hiring the original poster's child. However, several confirm the original poster's fear by saying that they would not hire a male babysitter. They generally claim this is due to increased risks of abuse or violence by males. This leads to a dispute about the actual risks presented by males with some posters making it clear that they consider any male who wants to be around children to be a likely pedophile. Other posters say they have sons who were able to find babysitting jobs without difficulty and a few posters describe positive experiences hiring males to babysit. At some point the discussion got diverted to the topic of male teachers. While some posters wish that men had a greater role in education, others describe structural and social hurdles to an increasing male presence. If you have an interest in negative gender-based stereotypes, this thread is for you because the thread is filled with them.

The final thread at which I'll look today was titled, "UVA admission stats across NOVA" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster notes the average number of AP classes and SAT scores of Langley High School students who were accepted at the University of Virginia and asks others to share similar data regarding other northern Virginia public high schools. From what I have read of the thread, it never really went in the direction in which the original poster was hoping. Instead, posters talked about the UVA admissions process and high school class loads generally. For reasons I don't understand, much of the discussion involves comparing UVA to the College of William and Mary. As is true about most college admissions-related threads these days, much of the discussion devolved to complaining about the unfairness of the process. Many posters are convinced that simply being a so-called "URM" (under represented minority) is enough to gain entry to the university of your choice. To hear these posters tell it, you shouldn't be able to find a single white person on a prestigious university campus because only URMs get accepted. The debate about URMs and affirmative action is extremely well-trod on DCUM and it's unfortunate that it is taking over another thread. The original poster actually pointed to another sort of potential discrimination. Are there Langley students who credentials would gain them easy entry into UVA if they attended any high school other than Langley? As far as I can tell, that question was not answered so we will never know.