From: isbell@ai.mit.edu (Charles L Isbell)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re: Read This! Another Article By The ACA
Date: 16 Apr 92 19:13:12 GMT
	<1992Apr16.172616.27254@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Followup-To: alt.discrimination
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
In-reply-to: heath@athena.cs.uga.edu's message of 16 Apr 92 17:26:16 GMT

heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath) writes:
|After reading the article on affirmative action, I simply had to respond.
|I am an AFrican-American student attending a predominantly white university
|(the student body is about 6% African-American) which also touts itself as
|an Affirmative Action Institution, and in my 4 years here, I've some to notice
|some interesting effects of Affirmative Action as it is currently implemented.

|When I came here, I knew I was more than qualified to be here, and that
|no qualifications had been lowered to allow my admittance.  Just to be
|sure I checked the required minimum GPA and SAT scores.  I came here after
|turning down a full scholarshp to a small, predominantly black (all black)
|college, as well as deciding not to apply to Harvard though I wsa urged by 
|a guidance counselor who thought I stood a good chance of getting in, based more on my race than my academic qualifications.  Academically, I belonged here
|more than I would have at harvard.

Don't underestimate yourself or overestimate Harvard.  Once Harvard
has admitted you, they are loathe to get rid of you.  That's just a
part of their (undergradute) philosophy (as opposed to Ga Tech which
is hell-bent to flunk out 1/3 of its entering class before the end of
the first year).

One might argue that this is a consequence of the awesome student body
of Harvard, but I suspect that it's mostly a philosophical view of its
role as a university.

|Since I've been here, I've found that white students often assume, BECAUSE of
|Affirmative Action, that I was admitted becuase of my race rather than my
|qualifications.  They are amazed when I utter an inteligible statement, let 
|alone intelligent ,because they assume that I do not belong here. And, when
|I stumble or fail to do well, it is assumed that it is because I
|am unqualified.

Yes, well.

|I do not know whether to blame this on the mishandling of Affirmative Action,
|or the simple racist assumption that being black automatically makes one
|unqualified, but perhaps the two affect each other.  I know some schools 
|really DO lower their admissions requirements for black students,and as a result
|SOME (NOT ALL) of the black students who are admitted are thrust into
|an academic environment for which they are not prepared.

Well, I find myself tempted to point out the obvious:  Black folk were
considered inferior and unqualified by many well before Affirmative
Action was even an atriculated thought, so you'd be hard-pressed to
present it as a reason (as opposed to an excuse) for stereotypical
assumptions.

|I do know that the whole affair smacks of a belief in entitlement to
|reparations.  And since the author of the article made reference to
|slavery, I infer that  
|affirmative action is part of making reparation for the effects of slavery 
|(which I will concede are felt even 400 years later).  HOwever the current
|genereations who are grappling with racism and affirmative action are not
|the people who were directly victimized by nor directly responsible for
|slavery.  Those white students, then, who meet admissions requirements are
|being asked to surrender their opportunies as payment of a debt they 
|themselves to not owe , to another group who has no direct claim on payment

Yes, well, and New York residents are asked to surrender their
opportunites for Utah residents and non-legaices are asked to
surrender their opprotunities to legacies and men are asked to
surrender their opportunities to women.

Of course, that's assuming a zero-sum game, as well as an accurate
measure for qualifications and the like.

|Perhaps affirmative action should be based on a factor other than race (such
|as economic status or disadvantage - which cuts across racial lines), at least
|in the area of university admissions.  Anyway, the answers to our racial woes
|are going to have to go alot deeper than creating victim classes that
|only serve to heighten racial tensions and resentment, which is what
|affirmative action in its current form seems to do.

Well, I think an ecomonic-based program wouldn't take into account
racism or sexism.  Why not both?  They aren't mutally exclusive and I
think it's a mistake to require that AA do something for which it is
not really intended.

As far as heigthening racial tensions, etc, I'm sure the entire Civil
Rights struggle did a lot to highten tensions as well, but I'd
hesitate to suggest that it shouldn't have happened for that reason.
Perhaps the good AA does is better than the bad?  It's certainly clear
that Black folk moved into the middle class during the 70's because of
AA in large part.

Note: I think this is too alt.discrimination-ish for scaa, so I won't
respond to it here anymore.  Follow ups set appropriately.
--
Peace.
     "[I support efforts] to limit the terms of members of Congress,
      especially members of the House and members of the Senate."
                           - Vice President Dan Quayle
                                   -\--/-
    Don't just adopt opinions     |  \/  |           Yes, it is I,
          develop them.           |  /\  |       The Homeboy from hell
                                   -/--\-