Scalia's Poorly Worded Comment Has Merit

I don't see any problem with the point the Scalia was trying, however inartfully, to make. As you say, it's only common sense that students who are allowed to get into top-tier universities through programs that give preference to minorities, rather than through achieving the same test scores and GPAs that other students admitted to the school had to earn, are unlikely to be as prepared for the academic environment as are their peers. That said, the question is what to do about it. I find that Scalia's inferred solution, that they go to lesser schools where the competition isn't as great, is a poor alternative to allowing them to attend the top-level institutions. The very point of programs that give preference to minorities in obtaining entrance to these schools is that they have a chance to learn from the best educators in the hope of helping to break cultural barriers and promoting a society where there is a more diverse population that has learned from the best teachers. It seems to me that that is still a worthy goal. Perhaps these universities could develop pre-enrollment programs to help students from these backgrounds gain more educational foundation prior to beginning their freshman year.

 

Same BS the pc crowd throws at every Trump statement. Nit-picking the language used, not the validity of the statement.

Everyone knows what he really meant to say is generally true. Generally speaking, most generalizations are generally true, in a generic sense.

Scalia makes a valid point about one of the many ways Affirmative Action fails to promote racial equality and in fact prevents it by discriminating against caucasians and at the same time setting up minorities for failure due to harder curriculums, or worse yet failure in their chosen careers because they were awarded their degrees despite not learning the subjects adequately, then awarded their jobs despite having minimal or no qualifications. The performance failings of the US Government in it's day to day bureaucracy can be attributed mostly to Affirmative Action.

 

Your assumed premise that "the best teachers" hold court solely or even mostly at "top-tier" universities is dubious at best. The best teachers are more likely to be found in less ego/financial-driven environments.

My best teacher was Dorothy Stafford, wife of Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford. I was in 3rd grade and we discussed current events like President Kennedy's assassination and the subsequent escalation of the Vietnam War between our daily "Duck and Cover!" cold war drills in the hallway. She was a brilliant woman who inspired many young people to live great lives, mostly just by treating them like equals and not dumbing-it-down for them.

 

Over the past 150 years, a large percentage of the population of this country have immigrated to this country or are decedents of immigrates. I fail to see how it is equal protection in law, that one racial group, immigrate or not, can be given preferential treatment over the other races. Doesn't sound right. This welcoming thought did not make the cut, in what to inscribe on the statue of Liberty.

 

You should only get in if your test scores allow it period. Nothing about race should be on the application and nothing about race should include or exclude someone from getting into a school (should be all about the test scores). Will never happen, so onward we argue about how to make everyone equal in an unequal world.

 

The thing is, no similar system exists to give caucasians a similar chance at making the NBA as a player, and there are far more caucasians who want to be NBA players.

We should probably exempt caucasians from the skills tests and ignore their lack of size and quickness in order to see that racial balance is re-introduced into the game. All teams should be around 70% caucasian to reflect our society.

 

The thing with academic achievement and college preparedness is really more of a socio-economic problem than a problem of race. Unfortunately it's far more likely that a black person is going to come from a background of generational poverty.

I think the hope with AA was that if more poor black kids were given the opportunity to get into a college that eventually their collective successes would trickle down to their offspring (kids of college graduates being far more likely to go to college themselves than those with parents without a college education) but the harsh reality is that a college education just isn't what it used to be in terms of rigor and the kind of earning power it confers.

It's a helluva problem and the only way I think it ever gets any better in any meaningful way is for our primary and secondary education systems to dramatically improve (a large part of which also boils down to parental involvement and parents taking responsibility for their children's achievment, but that's not sexy or the way to get votes, so it'll probably never happen).

 

This is where they expand the selection process to things like volunteering work, extra ciricular activities completed/performed, maybe even a history check on the student to see if they've been involved in any criminal activity, etc. That SHOULD narrow it down enough to pick equal number of students covering whichever races applied. I assume anyway it could happen.

 

I don't think I understand what you said or see any logic. Perhaps humor?

 

Perhaps value of college education has depreciated, the result of programs with unintended consequences, and more of the same only serves to reduce the benchmark. The sorting process will be done at some point no matter what liberal programs are introduced, no doubt with unintended consequences.

 

The "conservative" approach hasn't done shit for poor people either, so its not like its just some "liberal" failure.

 

Oh I think it is. I can't think of any other, can you? My experience suggests, at least to me, that we should not alway setup competition for the same space. Recognition of aptitude and complimentary aptitudes allows for team strength. Far better results can be had for many rather than filtering by direct competition only.

 

Well said. I completely agree with this.

 

It seems you and Denny both agree with Nik, but he recognizes it isn't working. So, what is to agree with?

 

Affirmative Action ONLY harms poor people. It's victims are the labor class, the lower middle-class and the sporadically employed. Hard-working, qualified, but forever blacklisted because they are Caucasian.