Thread: Seriousness Affirmative Action
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Old 07-07-2009, 04:50 PM   #37
Elfwreck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilbo1967 View Post
Yes, but the trouble with that is that the laws to level the playing field actually go some way to perpetuating the underlying root cause, i.e. people feel discriminated against and that manifests itself as racism (or other 'ism').
The root cause is not "people feel discriminated against." It is that some groups of people are discriminated against. Fixing that is going to mean those who've gotten unfair privileges through that discrimination, are going to feel put out for a while, as the field is leveled. If you've been on top of the hill for a long time, and someone starts to level the area, you're going to think someone's "tearing you down."

In a lot of cases, there's no option for leveling the field by bringing everyone up to the top-of-the-hill level. There are only so many high-paying jobs; if men have 75% of them now, and we fix the gender imbalance, that means a third of the men currently employed in those spots are going to lose their jobs... and they're likely to perceive it as "discrimination," not equality.
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