Affirmative action has truly become an abomination.
It not only unfairly discriminates against males, whites, Asians and other "oppressive" groups...
It also discriminates against females, blacks, Latinos, native Americans and other "oppressed groups". Its very premise is that these groups are "inferior" and cannot succeed without being institutionally favored. Moreover, it serves to discount their legitimate achievements -- the presumption being that a successful black or Latino didn't earn their station, but were given it.
Finally, the concept of affirmative action, in itself, affirms a permanent greivance culture among minorities. It forgives failure.
What a poisonous and pernicious program this has become!
Yet, thanks to Sandra Day O'Connor, in Grutter v Bollinger (the Univ of Mich case), we are stuck with “diversity” -- and proportional representation has been officially decreed to be a "compelling state interest" for "another 25 years".
Indeed, it is a formula for enslaving everybody -- the majority to restricted opportunity, the minorities to lower expectations.
My younger kids go to a conservative Christian private school (7th-12th grade). Thus, their own peer group tends to be quite conservative, especially compared to where I was at that age. Their abstinence program really works. I teach some Women’s Bible Studies at our church, and at first was pleasantly surprised to learn that these girls really are virgins when they marry. That was quite a shock to a boomer like me.
Anyway, they have a scholarship program, and several kids from the urban community take advantage of it. Thus, we have ghetto kids mixed in with these conservative kids. I love going to the awards ceremony, because the ghetto kids really do just as well as the other kids once they get to the high school age. The transformation is amazing. These kids learn their hard work will pay off, and they are not running around with a chip on their shoulder expecting special privileges. When they enter college, they don’t need any affirmative action program. This is a model that works wonders. Once out of college, these upstanding moral well spoken kids have little problem finding work, and the poverty cycle is broken.
My point is that teaching young kids the truth at a young age is the ticket to get kids out of these welfare cycles. Like you said, affirmative action just breeds resentment. I’m for school vouchers.