Pro-Minority Affirmative Action

"My background certainly doesn't do much justice to African-Americans. It hardly depicts the horrors they had to suffer for over 300 years...." However, nobody alive today suffered those horrors. Should a person be rewarded because his great-great-great-great-grandparents suffered? No. That doesn't make sense. "We need to undo those wrongs, if we are to protect races equally, as our Fourteenth Amendment demands." I'll cite the Civil Rights Act of 1964. http://finduslaw.com... "It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to... refuse to hire ... any individual ... because of such individual's race..." This effectively outlaws affirmative action. Furthermore, it seems that you are basing your entire argument around the fact that African-Americans are socio-economically disadvantaged, and yet you admit that not all African-Americans are socio-disadvantaged. So why should a middle-class African-American be favored over a lower-class European-American based on socio-economic status? Such a racist act violates the Fourteenth Amendment. "Affirmative action will help integrate them into society by giving them more jobs in which they're qualified, and it will help by providing them with better-paying jobs." However, you're trying to place them above equally qualified or more qualified people, which violates the Civil Rights Act. "Asian-Americans currently tend to fare better than any other race in America...." So, should we place an African-American over an Asian-American when the Asian-American is slightly more qualified? Furthermore, if Asian-Americans can be doing better than European-Americans without any racism, then why can't European-Americans be doing better than African-Americans without any racism? "But their enrollment rates still lag behind the actual makeup of their population in America." However, there is no proof of actual discrimination based solely on race, with the exception of affirmative action. For example, crime rates are higher among African-Americans. Because felons are excluded from many job opportunities, this would affect the African-American population more than other populations. However, note that this does not have any effect on the African-Americans who are not felons. "Frankly, I find it disgusting that my opponent would justify slavery in any way..." I'm not trying to justify it. I'm just saying that colonial America was better than Africa at the time, so it ended up being a very dark cloud with a silver lining. You can't just ignore the few positive effects because of the many negative effects. "Imperialism and colonialism led to countries in Europe controlling almost all of Africa." America was a better place even before the Europeans arrived. African tribes were enslaving each other anyway, and then selling each other to the Europeans was a convenience. http://autocww.colorado.edu... "In Africa, as in many places around the world, early slavery likely resulted from warring groups taking captives. ... [T]hey were often sold and transported to more distant places." "America is also not the best country in the world because two message board posters on the Internet say so." http://www.msnbc.msn.com... This more reliable source may not put America at the top, but it's right behind Europe. "The reason for affirmative action is because these races are being discriminated against." Proof? "There is no good reason for this, and affirmative action helps end discrimination like that." There is a perfectly good reason. Blacks and Hispanics tend to be more socio-economically disadvantaged, and there is correlation between socio-economic status and income, which is apparent in all races, not just African- and Mexican-Americans. "It just doesn't matter because there's not much evidence to suggest that they are being discriminated against, as a race, in colleges or the workplace." You don't have any real evidence, either. "African-Americans will likely bring different perspective and different cultures to the environment." Anybody can bring a new perspective or a new culture. Being black doesn't change this. "Gurin found that students in classroom with greater diversity reported...." So, we should throw as many cultures as we can into a classroom? That sounds like the idea of racial quotas. Also, your source defines affirmative action as "programs that expand access to jobs and education by creating a broader pool of applicants," which is not the definition currently used. "Con's hypothetical culture doesn't necessarily bring the same benefits, and it's not the same situation at all." Why not? You don't even know what my hypothetical culture is. It might open your eyes to a whole new definition of life, but I guess you'll never know. "I know there is discrimination because of the statistics I have used over and over again. There is no legitimate reason there should be such inequality." The answer is socio-economic standing. You're misinterpreting your own statistics. Thus, Mark Twain. "Why is there such economic inequality?" Why would anybody expect anything different? "There's no legitimate reason there should be such economic inequality." With all of the different groups in America with all of their backgrounds, expecting conformity would be fallacy. "Race should be irrelevant, and race and class should not intersect. But as I have shown, race and class continue to intersect." That would be an argument against high employment of Asian-Americans, as well. Now, if one million people came into America from a foreign planet (for argument's sake), and none of them knew a thing about capitalism or business, or anything like that, we'd have an obvious correlation between race and class. Now, should we immediately try to get some of these aliens into the upper class to balance this out? No. That would be unfair. "I said that the inequality is apparent with the statistics of unemployment and wages." But the inequality is not caused by what you think it is caused by. This racism that you say exists doesn't. "As for the arguments that Con didn't even make, but had to quote..." Technically, all of our arguments are re-interpretations of what other people have said. Does paraphrasing it make it your own? Not really. "...affirmative action law requires proper qualifications." However, if the two really did have equal qualifications, then affirmative action wouldn't be necessary. Otherwise, the most qualified should be hired. "As for Thomas Sowell's arguments, there are several claims in it that you did not back up." They're backed up by Thomas Sowell. He's a fairly qualified economist. http://en.wikipedia.org... "There are clearly problems across races." Racism doesn't fix this. "If you're attempting to say that the lower employment rates of blacks and Hispanics are entirely due to economic standing, you have to prove that." You're the one accusing America of racism. They're innocent until proven guilty. "I have shown how the oppression and discrimination against African-Americans helped cause much poverty and lack of education." However, nobody alive today experienced slavery. "The statistics do not show that just poor blacks or poor Hispanics are affected." Yes, they do. "As far back as 1980, college-educated black married couples earned slightly more than white college-educated married couples." This was commentary by Thomas Sowell in "Economic Facts and Fallacies," page 174, on a study cited in "Black Elite" by Richard B. Freeman. "Help should be provided for the lower class, but that doesn't suddenly cure the inequality between races." Actually, it does, as it would help African-Americans and Hispanics slightly more.