Centerfield

Racial discrimination is not the answer to racial discrimination. Perhaps it was a necessary evil at that time, and I grant that, but it should be (perhaps have been already) ended at the earliest possible time. Unless there is an overwhelming social need to do so, other factors should not be put ahead of merit when it comes to providing opportunity.

You mention the poorest 10% should be provided the chance for higher education, but that seems to me to be a financial aid issue, not an AA issue. I don't have a problem with funding programs for poor people, provided that they do in fact earn entrance to the schools on their own. If they simply can't afford to go, then I see society benefiting from giving a little help for those people; it becomes more likely that their children won't need such help. It's kind of like how the worst performing teams in sports are given the best draft picks.

I was rather taken with Obama's suggestion that we shift from Affirmative Action based on race to one based on economics. I think that there may be something to be said for gving someone an edge in admissions (separate from the issue of paying for college; just getting past the initial filter) if they have been working under an economic hardship. Not a free pass; just in recognition that they may have been required to devote some of their time to helping support their family, rather than studying. Having been there, I may be prejudiced. But it can certainly be a substantial time cost.

It would definitely be a step towards reason from the current system.

But you have to keep in mind that you're not just helping out one group; in order to do so, you must punish another group for: being white, being able to devote more time to their studies, being rich, etc. Penalizing people for things they can't change, or for things they should be proud of, is never a good thing. Wasn't that the original problem all this was supposed to address?

Considering that millions of people were being punished for over 200 years for being black, 75 years of what really is a mild adjustment seems rather small potatoes. Miniscule. Despite the fact that Jim Crow officially ended 30 years ago it has taken a pretty long time to die out. It still is dying a lingering death. A cultural Karen Ann Quinlan. Never mind the legacy admissions that continue to this day at colleges that were and still are predominantly white, nevermind the overt racial discrimination that continues to this day, whether it is in jobs or housing or the application of justice.

What percentage of the freshman class is black in Ivy league schools? Try less than 10%. Only Columbia has a large percentage and that's 11%. to their credit the black graduation rate is very high. But very high of 7% is still 7%.
My alma mater, UC Berkeley, has a dismal record of 3.1%, partly because blacks are competing against very large populations of minorities that stress education first, partly because tuition has skyrocketed to more than 10 times what I paid a mere 30 years ago. Part also due to the high cost of living in the SF Bay AreaPart due to the school system being eviscerated by Proposition 13. Three decades of chronic school underfunding to the point that California is at the BOTTOM of the list is going to affect those who can't afford the high tuition of private schooling. Oh, and we got rid of preferential admissions for minorities thanks to a Republican black guy who had his affirmative action and the requisite Mercedes already.

Methinks Justin doth protest overmuch. As I recall, white people are still being treated for syphillis and are not subjected to secret LSD experimentation. White people still go to school, advance well in jobs, become CEOs or doctors or whatever and own lots of houses. You can count the number of black CEOs in the Fortune 500 on one hand, minus a thumb. I work for one of them.

White victimology in the form of "reverse racism", IS THE favorite plaint of white conservatives who voted in the past against anti-discrimination laws, voters rights acts etc, seems rather petty when the effects over the entire nation for whites as a whole are pretty minimal. If white people are feeling screwed, chances are its a problem stemming from big government and big business. Racism makes a nice distraction from the real issues of economic justice, overly high managerial pay, cronyism and political spoils systems from small city government to the Feds, to name a few issues.

The effects of discrimination against blacks and other minorities haunts this nation to no end and is a major reason for an incredible lack of financial wealth in the black community. Couple that with broken families and community ties. Such weighs down heavily in crime, low education advancement, teen pregnancies, high unemployment, especially among black youth. The list is depressingly endless. Try living in Oakland.

Yes, active AA should come to an end soon, but I would like it to be replaced by an overly aggressive enforcement of anti-discrimination laws for a few decades. For those who think that race no longer matters, that whites no longer have a cultural edge, you need to do some traveling, need to do some talking. Race still matters in this country. For those who believe otherwise, who think the magic wand has been waved and is hunky dory...you're effin effin blind.

I'm looking forward to my favorite sport of the political convention season when we play "Count the Minorites" at the GOP convention. Count also how many times you see the same black or hispanic or asian faces in a given convention broadcast, especially on Fox News. I can turn it into a drinking game - if its more than 3 times you have to finish the beer. You can get really, really stinking drunk. No problem because it still POs me off enough to want to be drunk.

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