Sally

In this scenario places would be reserved for whites.

Girls used to lose out in the old British A Level system because the numbers were evened up between the sexes, and girls generally outperform boys at that age.

cindyabs

Affirmative action of the best kind.
Put your politics aside on this one.
Not for the squeamish btw.


http://www.militarytimes.com/multime...o/rpg_surgery/

Cape Blue

Being against affirmative action does not mean that someone is against black people, it means that one is against treating any groups preferentially over another due to their ethnicity/color. Note that affirm action can work against minorities like Asians who aren't targeted as the preferred group.

Kaffy Mintcake

This reminds me of a concept that is commonly known in hiring or interviewing (both for jobs, and for research - what I do) known as "similar to me" bias. The idea is that you are inherently drawn to people who are like you - whether this be in physical appearance, personality, age, gender, etc. There's a lot of truth to it. Perhaps you "click" with this person due to commonalities, or you see a bit of yourselves in them. For many, this is not a conscious means of selection.

In hiring this is risky because it can result in a homogenous workforce - and diversity of opinion can lead to innovation, and to a stronger organization. After all - if you are serving or selling to an entire population, but represent only a segment of that population - will you be as effective? I doubt it.

The old boys club is alive and well. Men often don't realize this - I've struggled to get my husband to understand it. It may be poker nights with the guys, playing golf during a work outing, talking sports at the watercooler. Am I saying this should cease? Not at all! But it's how networking takes place, relationships form, and rapport that results in career advancement can be born. It links back to the idea of "similar to me" bias that can squeeze out diversity, whether it be due to the color of one's skin, one's nationality, economic background, etc.

Affirmative action is an attempt to correct this. Is it perfect? I'm not saying it is - but I do think some sort of encouragement to employers, colleges, etc. to embrace the diversity of the larger populous is important. Without it, advances could perhaps be made, but at a much slower rate than they would be otherwise.

We're all guilty of "similar to me" bias. Think of your own experience for a moment. Do you favor someone because you have common interests with them? Because you share a style of dress? Political beliefs? Because they are British, or American, or from Australia? That doesn't make others less valid, I'm sure most of us would agree - but without programs to encourage diversity, homogeneous environments can be more comfortable, and things would continue as they were.

My husband and I had an eye-opening experience a few years ago. We were looking for something to do on a Saturday night, and spotted a club where music was playing. We were greeted at the door quite enthusiastically "So glad to see you, you are welcome here" we were told. I remember thinking, how odd, why wouldn't we be? Walking in - we were the only white people in the club. We were treated well, and listened to a wonderful jazz performer, and enjoyed ourselves. I remember feeling like I glowed in the dark - wishing my sweater had long sleeves so perhaps I wouldn't stick out so much. How crazy is that? It was a taste, albeit a small one in a friendly setting, of being a minority - something foreign to most of us.

Sally

Good points KJ

anotherlimey

I've never heard of that, but then again South Florida isn't known for it's Asian population.

Sally

UCLA is jokingly referred to as the University of China

anotherlimey

I found something on it at least: http://www.diversityjobs.com/univers...sian-americans

A couple of interesting facts there.

another bloody yank

If you get that feeling from me you're wrong. The person who is most qualified should get the job/spot in the freshman class. Regardless of race, ethnicity or any other physical factor!

If I tried to get into Harvard and got beat out of a spot by a better qualified person who happened to be Chinese then more power to them, I concede and accept. If I got beat by a lesser or similarly qualified Chinese person because they happen to be Chinese, then I would be upset.

The legs have healed, it's time to throw away the crutches and walk.

snowbunny

But they really haven't.

We were forced to do away with affirmative action oh, ten years ago, due to a lawsuit by white students who had higher test scores than a few black students, but the black students were admitted to the University of Texas Law School under affirmative action.

In one stroke all educational affirmative action was taken away. The numbers of minority students in both the undergraduate and graduate universities fell tremendously.

And the existing laws against discrimination in the workplace ARE NOT followed. I had one boss (NOT at my current job) tell me that he only hired women because HR forced him to do it. This same man was later sued by another woman claiming discrimination, and yet despite a pattern of these remarks, was cleared. As one of only a few women in this workplace, I was forced to testify to an EEOC officer behind closed doors, and even though no one knew what I said, AND the boss was cleared, AND I had no choice whether to testify, some of the guys treated me resentfully over the matter for years.

Sally

I guess the legs have healed but the recruiters/employers may want certain candidates to run faster than others.

another bloody yank

So your'e saying that a "tremendous" number of minority students, once the race factor was removed, didn't meet the requirements for admission? And that during the period of Affirmative Action these students would have been accepted?

Those minority students who qualified and were admitted (post AA) on the basis of their merit and ability and not their race or ethnicity must be very proud, no one can tell them they didn't deserve to be there, and they proved that it could be done.

You worked in a place full of dinosaur idiots.

The two most politically powerful people in my organization, until they both recently retired, were women. The leader of our 2000 person client organization is a woman. I've been at my current job 15 years, for the majority of that time, a woman has been my immediate supervisor. 3 different women during that time actually. For the two short periods that a woman was not my immediate boss, that position was held by black men. For the last 6 years, my local account manager has been a woman, and for a while (until she was promoted to Vice President in charge of something or another) the entire account manager (two locations) was a woman. I work on a large account with an even larger client and I could go on and on. These people were hired and promoted because they were good at what they did and for no other reason.

YankeemovingAbroad

I agree the legs should have healed and its time to throw away the crutch and I reference that toward certain caucasians who show bias in the work place in Europe and America.Its time that the Ole Boy Network be dismantled and fair play brought in as the standard.Why should someone be given a job because they know the right person who just so happen to play golf,tennis with them? Its just another form of Affirmative Action!!

YankeemovingAbroad

That is absoluely horrible.Can't wait to get a democrate into the White House in order to appoint progressive Supreme Court Justices.Its important to protect all people against ignorance, these laws are particularly needed in southern states because conservative ideology runs rife in those regions.I have lived in the southeast,northeast,midwest and the southwest.Have a pretty good idea which areas need to be dragged kicking and screaming into this century.

Sally

I can see both sides of the AA argument, but we don't unfortunately live in a true meritocracy. I'm sure everyone knows of people who got jobs etc by string-pulling rather than true merit.