[JoeAltmaier]

This is the usual BS argument, voiced to make discrimination OK again. Seems obvious you have to look at race, to work to level inequalities in race. But the kneejerk response is to say "Hey that's just more racism!"

They are different in kind. One (racism) works to systematically suppress one segment of the population. The other, taking action, works to correct this effect. Both operate on racial lines, but that's where the similarity ends.

You have a car that pulls slightly to the left; so you steer a little to the right to correct. Sure, we'd all like a car that steers straight. But it pulls to the left, what you gonna do?

{I know the previous comment was probably some robotic troll, and I should ignore it. But that lame justification for racism gets my dander up.}

[zarkov99]

No, it only seems obvious if you assume that all racial groups should have outcomes that exactly mirror their demographics with racism being the only possible explanation as to why this has never been the case anywhere for anything. The solution is just as imbecilic as the diagnosis: we will solve bad racism through good racism until we get exactly the proportions we find equitable. Meanwhile we teach kids that the color of their skins is more important than the content of their brains when it comes to getting the education they want. What could go wrong?

[JoeAltmaier]

Strawman. Helping balance the scales isn't insisting all outcomes are exactly anything. Just that they aren't horribly unbalanced.

To the one on top, fairness seems to be oppression. Clearly, that is happening here.

[frog_squid]

If I were to go along with your metaphor I would say what affirmative action is doing is starting with a a car that pulls slightly to the left. Then, instead of taking the car to the mechanic and having the root issue fixed, laws are passed so all roads are rebuilt to consistently meander slightly left so the car can still drive down the road while hitting the gas and not have to course correct the steering wheel to stay on the road.

I.e. it's the wrong solution for the problem, is absurd and makes things worse.

[JoeAltmaier]

You got the solution? No? Then we just gonna head off into the weeds, like we have for 100 years? Yeah that'd suit many folks just fine. The folks on top, who see any attempt at fairness as 'oppression'.