[Tired of Taxes]

But, Henrietta, although the existence of affirmative action programs promotes racist stereotypes, I don't think the programs themselves work the way so many people think they do. Race is only one qualifier for admission into a university. For example, maybe a person has lower SAT scores, but he/she gave a better interview, or wrote a compelling essay for the college application. And, remember, white women supposedly benefit from affirmative action, too, and other "groups" like Asian-Americans and Hispanics also qualify under AA programs. But - alas! - only African-Americans get stereotyped. IMHO, before we abolish AA programs, we should stop state and federal funding of schools altogether. Let people pay for their own educations and go to different schools, if they like.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

....we should stop state and federal funding of schools altogether.

But that would severely restrict government control over admissions and eliminate AA. Oh, now I get it. :-)

[Henrietta]

While I agree with most of what you said, I think that it is important to point out again that the vast majority of students of color do get admitted despite vastly inferior SAT scores and high school grades. This phenomenon has been well-documented. Grades and SAT scores tend to be very accurate predictors of success in higher education. The fact that one person wrote a better essay or gave a better interview has not been shown to be a good predictor of academic success. So again, this is the reason why students of color have high failure rates, and are less academically able for a given institution.

I vigorously dispute the allegation that women receive affirmative action in education. As a white woman, I can't think of any time where my educational opportunities were expanded or changed because I had two x chromosomes. I suspect that people tend to forward this view as a "smoke screen" for continuing affirmative action..."Well, but women benefit, too..." As if it's okay to discriminate, as long as we are only discriminate against white males!

[Henrietta]

P.S.: It's not just blacks that get stereotyped, hispanics do too!

[Henrietta]

I don't think the programs themselves work the way so many people think they do.

Oh, yes! They work exactly the way people "think they do" and worse! While you contend that race "is only one factor" when schools take that "one factor" and make it the most important factor by giving people who happen to have that one factor a huge advantage, then it's disingenuous to say that it's only one factor.

I'm not buying the "one factor" argument, and I don't think anyone else on this forum will, either.