You don't seem to understand that "trying to do my part to make the world into one where affirmative action would be unnecessary" is a complete waste of time by itself because people who benefit from AA will always claim it is necessary.itsthesheppy said:I have limited time and energy. I figure, arguing against affirmative action is a waste of time; it's complaining about a symptom and frankly, I sound like an entitled little jerk when I whine about discrimination, being that I'm a white heterosexual cisgendered middle class American. It's like... I'm complaining?Crono1973 said:I saw the bolded parts, you could do both. You do not discriminate AND protest when you are discriminated against.itsthesheppy said:I have bolded the parts of my post you apparently missed.Crono1973 said:In other words, sit back and take the discrimination like a man?itsthesheppy said:I will say that the criticisms of such programs are undermined somewhat by being conjured largely, I've found, from individuals to whom the program gives no benefit. As in, white people.Schadrach said:Of course. The real question is, where does an actual difference in opportunity following those demographic lines exist? That's where the effort needs to be placed, and that's also why affirmative action as it is actually practiced is ridiculous, sexist, and racist, and also *maintains* the idea that those people aren't as capable, because they're not being held to the same standard.itsthesheppy said:While I agree that hiring lesser-qualified minority groups to grant them status is putting the cart before the horse, you have to at least recognize that there are fewer 'qualified' candidates for those positions because of the unequal manner in which we educate and prepare people for life.
There may be more 'qualified' white male candidates for Job A because white men are more likely to be privileged with the training and opportunity for Job A than other groups. Suggesting that the playing field is totally level is to suggest that there's more white men in these positions because being a white man somehow makes you more competent, which we know to be false.
So I feel the anger is a bit misdirected. While people rail against 'affirmative action', they rarely qualify that anger by suggesting comprehensive change to the systems that make such programs needed. Most just stop at the anger.
Speaking as a white guy, I don't bother to speak out against them. I instead endeavor to do my part to make this world one in which those programs will not be a necessity. Whining about them focuses the conversation on a symptom and not the disease. In fact all it does is reinforce the idea that minority groups have, that we white folks are always trying to keep them down, to maintain our comfortable majority and position of privilege. I feel effort is better spent ignoring things like affirmative action and instead focusing efforts on making them obsolete.
See, that's how we got here. People sitting back and not protesting.
Nah, no thanks. My time and energy are much better spent on trying to do my part to make the world into one where affirmative action would be unnecessary. No sense in wasting it hacking away at symptoms that, honestly, don't always misfire anyway. People seem to confuse the words "can" and "do" when it comes to affirmative action. It can create a situation where a lesser qualified candidate gets the position. It doesn't always, however, and in fact has most likely prevented a qualified candidate from being denied because of X, Y or Z.
If you think that those who benefit from AA are just going to say "ok, things are equal now" then you are smoking something that you aren't sharing with the rest of the thread. It's like feminism, no matter how many advantages women get, they will never say "we are equal enough".
Right now we have people saying that women have taken over the workforce (Maria Shriver said 3 years ago that "it's a womans world now", link below and I saw a Time magazine cover a month or two ago saying similar) and women are still whining about equal pay.
It has been shown countless times that women get paid less because they take more time off work, work less overtime, are not as mobile and just generally choose less risky and less demanding jobs. That won't matter though because women still protest and because of that, things will change in their favor. Next thing you know cashiers at Wal Mart will be making more than stockers who do heavy lifting because Wal Mart is tired of getting sued and they know men are less likely to protest. I hate to say it but it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-shriver/a-womans-nation_b_187244.html