Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ten Reasons Why Affirmative Action Died
American Greatness ^ | 12 Jul, 2023 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 07/13/2023 5:01:00 AM PDT by MtnClimber

The end of affirmative action was inevitable. The only surprise was that such intentions gone terribly wrong lasted so long.

First, supporters of racial preferences always pushed back the goal posts for the program’s success. Was institutionalized reverse bias to last 20 years, 60 years, or ad infinitum? Parity became defined as an absolute equality of result. If “equity” was not obtained, then only institutionalized “racism” explained disparities. And only reverse racism was deemed the cure.

Second, affirmative action was imposed on the back end in adult hiring and college admissions. However, to achieve parity, remediation early at the K-12 school level would have been the only solution. Yet such intervention was made impossible by teachers’ unions, the rise of identity politics and government entitlements. All were opposed to school choice, self-help programs, critiques of cultural impediments, or restrictions on those blanket entitlements,

Third, class, the true barometer of privilege, was rendered meaningless. Surrealism followed. The truly privileged Barack and Michelle Obama and Meghan Markel lectured the country on its unfairness—as if they had it far rougher than the impoverished “deplorables” of East Palestine, Ohio.

Fourth, affirmative action supporters could never square the circle of proving that racial prejudices didn’t violate the spirt of the Declaration of Independence and the text of the Constitution. What they were left with was the lame argument that because long ago the 90% white majority had violated their own foundational documents, then such past bad unconstitutional bias could legitimately be rectified by present-day “good” unconstitutional bias.

Fifth, supporters never adequately explained why the sins of prior generations fell on their descendants who grew up in the post-Civil Rights era. Nor could they account for why those who had never experienced institutionalized racism, much less Jim Crow apartheid or slavery, were to be compensated collectively

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: affirmativeaction; discrimination; vdh; victordavishanson
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last
To: MtnClimber

Hah, it ain’t dead at all.

What is going to happen is complete defiance of the decision as it goes to black and Hispanic admissions, which aren’t going to decline at at all, and use of the decision as an excuse to curtail legacy, athletic and “leadership” admissions of (overwhelmingly) whites in favor of a greater quota of “academic merit” admissions of (mostly) Asians.


21 posted on 07/13/2023 6:00:22 AM PDT by only1percent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Quotes:

Urban Underserved Pathway (U2P)
Do you have an interest in primary care, health equity, and a passion for caring for our cities’ underserved patients? If so, the Urban Underserved Pathway (U²P) may be right for you. The U2P is the first programmatic offering under the larger CU2RE Program, a federally funded initiative designed to expand the number of students trained in family medicine, and primary care generally. Participants will have numerous opportunities to acquire the skills, knowledge, and expertise to care for underserved patients. In addition to population health management, service-learning and advocacy projects, students will have opportunities for publications and presentations at local and national conferences.

Rural Pathway
Content coming soon!

https://www.uab.edu/medicine/familymedicine/education/cu2re/urban-underserved-program


22 posted on 07/13/2023 6:05:09 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (ARTICLE I SECTION 2....The President...may require the opinion, in writing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nifty

Tiger Woods is 1/8th black.

https://www.espn.com/gen/s/2002/0521/1385355.html#:~:text=Woods%20said%20nothing%20to%20clarify,and%20one%2Deighth%20Native%20American.
“For the record, he is one-quarter Thai, one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Caucasian, one-eighth African-American and one-eighth Native American. But his mother, Tida, says Tiger “is more Asian.” By way of explanation, she added, “A mother raises her son, and he had an Asian mother.”


23 posted on 07/13/2023 6:10:34 AM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

First Affirmative Action law.

1961, JFK.


24 posted on 07/13/2023 6:12:06 AM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

Ted Kennedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_Shall_Never_Die


25 posted on 07/13/2023 6:13:23 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (ARTICLE I SECTION 2....The President...may require the opinion, in writing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

The upside is that the failure of affirmative action just confirmed that racism is not only wrong, but it’s a formula for failure, regardless of how it’s wrapped and marketed.


26 posted on 07/13/2023 6:13:27 AM PDT by Spok (“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

“Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California, to Earl and Kultida “Tida” Woods. He is their only child, though he has two half-brothers and a half-sister from his father’s first marriage. Earl was a retired U.S. Army officer and Vietnam War veteran; he was born to African-American parents and was also said to have had European, Native American, and possibly Chinese ancestry.”

“Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy who was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father Earl Woods. Earl was a single-digit handicap amateur golfer who also was one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. Woods told reporters he had wanted to be a baseball player like his father but abandoned that goal after tearing his rotator cuff. His father was a member of the military and had playing privileges at the Navy golf course beside the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, which allowed Tiger to play there. Tiger also played at the par 3 Heartwell golf course in Long Beach, as well as some of the municipals in Long Beach.”

“He was nicknamed Tiger in honor of his father’s friend, South Vietnamese Colonel Vuong Dang Phong, who had also been known as Tiger.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods

Wikipedia mentions the ESPN statement.


27 posted on 07/13/2023 6:25:30 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (ARTICLE I SECTION 2....The President...may require the opinion, in writing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Brian Griffin

I was going to first post that I have never been able to pin down if Tiger was 1/8th or 1/4 black, but then I saw that ESPN article and went with it.

Decades ago Time and Newsweek used different percentages, one went with 1/8 and the other went with 1/4.


28 posted on 07/13/2023 6:34:26 AM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: motor_racer; MtnClimber

Race, Class, Gender are HUGE money-makers.


29 posted on 07/13/2023 6:54:52 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Pearls Before Swine; All
I disagree with the great VDH’s premise that Affirmative Action has died.

It has been on life support in the Courts for decades, because it so obviously violates equal protection under the law.

This clear Supreme Court decision is a death blow. But, as with many monsters, it will take considerable time for Affirmative Action to die. There will have to be lawsuits against racial prejudice in hiring. All the mechanism is there, set up to enforce Affirmative Action.

30 posted on 07/13/2023 6:55:28 AM PDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Brian Griffin

I know all about Tiger. I just wonder why he is never referred to as Thai.


31 posted on 07/13/2023 6:58:41 AM PDT by Nifty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Can you say, “PUSHBACK?” I am seeing a glimmer of hope and signs that the entire racist DEI BLM thing has worn its welcome thin and people on both sides of thee aisle has had enough.


32 posted on 07/13/2023 7:23:53 AM PDT by devane617 (Discipline Is Reliable, Motivation Is Fleeting..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: chajin
he's Afro-Cuban

That's as stupid a designation as "african-american." Hyphenated labels such as those indicate the person is neither "African" or "American." Such an one is either African or American. Whichever they might be, they're definitely idiots.

33 posted on 07/13/2023 7:31:21 AM PDT by LouAvul (Daniel 4:17: "..the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.." )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Made that argument to my very liberal DIL a few years back. Asked her if AA had worked over the last 50 years then do we really need it anymore. It served its purpose. But if it hasn’t worked then shouldn’t 50 years and almost 2 generations be enough to prove it’s a failed experiment.

She just had a deer in the headlights look and changed the subject.


34 posted on 07/13/2023 8:38:14 AM PDT by redangus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: motor_racer
Eleventh: Race pimping has become a huge business, creating massive political donations, and blackmail (!) revenue for the race pimps.

"Envy used to be just a human failing, but today it is a major industry. Politicians, journalists, and academics are all part of that industry, which some call 'social justice'" - Thomas Sowell

35 posted on 07/13/2023 8:39:12 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

“At one time AA made sense.”

Sorry. I don’t see it.


36 posted on 07/13/2023 8:41:55 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Way too early to make that claim.


37 posted on 07/13/2023 8:44:58 AM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brian Griffin
Tiger and Obama both had ‘black’ fathers.

The public doesn't know Barack Obama's father is, fake birth certificate and all.

38 posted on 07/13/2023 8:46:06 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

“At one time AA made sense. But at most it should have only been in place for one generation, no more.”

I would argue the opposite—that people excel only when they must do so.

Blacks fighting to overcome real hardship with a solid work ethic would have made them the best they could be.

AA just made everybody else doubt that the black sitting next to them had earned the right to be there.

It also created a “culture of entitlement” that is the exact opposite of what was needed.


39 posted on 07/13/2023 8:50:09 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Worldtraveler once upon a time

I think there was another obvious but undiscussed problem with the outcomes that won’t be discussed; the “preferred minorities” often ended up struggling in a tier one (or more) up from where their merits could get them. Imagine token 1 has an unearned masters degree, and exceptions are made to clear the way for a slot normally reserved for someone with a doctorate; token 2 has an unearned bachelors degree, and is pushed into a position normally requiring a masters degree, and token 3 with an unearned associates degree is shoehorned into a slot normally held by someone with a bachelors degree. All three may laugh all the way to the bank, but they also are hopelessly lost at their jobs - and the employer still has to pay competent workers to do the real work. Attempts by employers to rectify this are met with lawsuits, as all three tokens - officially, on paper - are “qualified” (though the degrees/certificates are meaningless wishful thinking).

Nobody wins; employers accept the “reparations tax” and keep the tokens on the payroll where they can do the least damage, and the illusion of assimilation and economic progress is maintained.


40 posted on 07/13/2023 8:55:57 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-44 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson