Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga
If you want an idea of just to what length institutions will go to in order to be perceived as "diverse," just look at the 'shops below. When "diversity" is in such high demand, it is a sad but foregone conclusion that affirmative action will be implemented.
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Those both look like examples of places trying to *avoid* affirmative action by claiming a diversity that doesn't actually exist. In the second case, it's pointed out that the actual demographics are plenty diverse--but the stock photography isn't, and it's easier to photoshop a change, than to find a picture that shows the diversity they want.
That's the reason for affirmative action--because a lot of businesses are quick to say "of course we support diversity! Look at [program X]!"... as long as the diversity doesn't involve actual inclusion of people of color. Fictional inclusion is fine; no white person had to give up his seat at the game for that; no photographer had to find a mixed-race family to photograph.
That's the crux of the matter: jobs and education are not infinite resources. If some people are being squished out of them by discrimination, and that's to be rectified, some people who are currently secure will have to be excluded. A great deal of the anti-AA rhetoric sounds a lot like, "how dare someone make it less likely that I (or my children) have access to this?"
Claiming all jobs should be merit-based only is a nice idea, but it's not true. If it were, credit unions where the clients are all entirely phone-based wouldn't require female workers to wear skirts and hose and banks wouldn't require suits (there's nothing about a t-shirt that makes a person incapable of punching buttons, or untrustworthy in handling money). If jobs were entirely merit-based, you'd see a lot more overweight newscasters. AA acknowledges that the decisions aren't always based on merits, and forces employers to notice qualified candidates they might've passed over through unthinking bias towards "how it's always been."
Education should be merit-based, too. When college applications don't ask for gender, race, or the location of high school, and only look at grades and the application essay, perhaps I'll consider them to be merit-based. AA is a method that allows them to acknowledge unconscious biases and work around them, rather than trying to remove all bias-inducing data from the process, which would leave universities in a position of holding a lottery every year among qualified candidates for lack of specific information.