When Affirmative Action _first_ was introduced in the 80s, it was a disaster. It amounted to a quota system. Nobody knew what to do.
Now, in 2016, businesses and Universities know better.
The guidelines are pretty fine tuned now. Two students should be pretty equivalent or else they could face a lawsuit. Nobody likes a lawsuit. So, they are careful to do it right.
That being said, are there abuses? Probably. But I think fear of lawsuits means they probably tread the razor’s edge of applying it correctly generally very well. Think how many people are chomping at the bit to see a screw up?
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Discrimination is a subtle thing and tough to beat. My mother is an example that I know of:
She got a job in a county govt (Prosecutor’s office, same as District Attorney elsewhere) at a time when they had a Merit based system. A merit based system means you take a test and the best test-taker gets in.
Well, she’s a good test taker, so she got in.
Various promotions through the years, various tests she took. Did well. But,
Once, she applied for a position as Financial Manager. She took the tests. She beat out everybody. She’s a good test taker. [she crams].
But they didn’t want a woman for the job. This is in the 1990s, not that long ago.
Three months later, they reopened the position under a different title: “Supervisor of Accounts” and redid the testing process.
She beat everybody again. She got the job.
But… it paid $30,000 less.
Same duties, same position, different title, different payscale.
Is this provably discrimination? No. But these things happen. She took the job because it’s the best a non-political woman could get.
Have things flipped and gone the ‘other way now’ since then? I don’t know. I hear a lot of clamor from the alt.right that it has. i find the alt.right fascinating because it’s like the old conservatives but with University educations and knowledge of the systems at play and know how to speak the language. At one time, the right didn’t know much about these things. The old right is still kinda clueless.
I’m not left but I am left leaning in some ways – right leaning in others, libertarian in others, etc… but one’s political leanings is another topic.
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They shouldn’t be. But you have to remember that this is a systemic rather than an episodic problem.
I’d like a blind system. I’m blind to people’s race, ethnicity, age, gender. I probably have _some_ bits of discrimination left in me but I’ve worked on eradicating them as best I can. Being on the Internet a long time makes it easier: I don’t know or care what somebody is: I judge them as they present themselves and my suppositions about them based on that.
But…
… I think the road you describe isn’t necessarily so.
Maybe if hiring/accepting was done foolishly, that’d be possible. that’s what happened in the 80s.
But Remember: We’re not talking about 98% vs 46% here.
We’re talking 98% vs 98%. You’re thinking worst case scenario across the board, leading to a crumbling of society or something.
They’re equally qualified within whatever ranges they have for qualification.
It’s not like taking a B student over an A student.
It’s taking an A student over an A student.
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But in a perfect world, I agree with you about age or race shouldn’t be counted.
Maybe as more and more things take place online instead of in person, we’ll potentially see less discrimination.
But as long as there is face-to-face interviews, there will be discrimination because people tend to hire people that look like themselves.
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