this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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United States | News & Politics

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[–] Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Poor communities have worse public schools, fewer educational programs, etc. They have less access to education and thus have a harder time to excel in it. Affirmative action from my understanding was a way to offset the systemic racism favoring rich white communities. I don't think it's a good solution but removing it without a decade of solving the underlying issues and seeing the first kids with equal chances make it into university is just a horrible thought. EDIT: typo

[–] mintyfrog@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why not use income and where you live rather than race, then?

[–] Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I thought those programs existed as well?

[–] mintyfrog@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago

Yes, but what does race account for that income and location do not? Unless you're a racist, not very much.

[–] subignition@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

I think similar logic to the paradox of tolerance may be applicable here...

It wasn't a perfect solution, but directly correcting the proportions affected by the systemic problem (using same or similar discriminators as the actual problem) was progress in the right direction. That bigot's opinion goes the exact wrong direction; the goal should have been to reach a point where there isn't enough scarcity in higher education for anyone to "lose out". In other words, the policy should try to make itself unnecessary.

I don't claim to have the solution to systemic racism, but I wouldn't be surprised if a reversal of the last half-century's anti-education trends did a lot of the legwork on that by itself. And if there are still systemic issues to address, hey! Now you have a whole lot more educated folks to help figure out what to do from there.

[–] gk99@beehaw.org -4 points 2 years ago

Basing any assistance on race is a terrible policy that will lead to countless kids falling through the cracks because they weren't the right color and live in the wrong location. That's unfair to those kids and it's clear as day. If wealth inequality is the problem, target wealth inequality, don't slap on some half-assed racial band-aid.