ForumGarden

Isn't it high time to shelve this concept?



FROM: http://www.constitutioncenter.org/educa ... rint.shtml



"When we put an emphasis on race or sex through university admissions, through public employment, through policy, we teach people that it is OK to treat people differently," Gratz, 29, said as she debated this fall's Michigan referendum that would ban affirmative action in public education, hiring and contracting.



Civil rights leaders said the vote will influence the affirmative action debate nationally.



Gratz, a white woman from suburban Detroit who graduated 12th in her high school class, sued the University of Michigan in 1997 for discrimination after being denied admission. In June 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gratz's case and another case that colleges and universities can consider a student's race when making admissions decisions in order to promote diversity but can't use rigid formulas to do so.

I think so.

I can appreciate the original intent behind AA. But I don't agree with using AA as a way to "balance" race or gender. Not at all. And it seems like that's what it's really about.

It's an idea whose "political correctness" seems long overdue for a SHELVING, IMHO. Granted, 45 years ago, it was clearly a white/male world in business and in many colleges. Things have changed, but the "preference by color" system is still in place.

Let's dump it.

Admission to a university should be based on their ability, not gender or race. The same should be true for employment practices.

It was never a good idea. It has robbed many people of what they worked hard for in order to give it to another who won the lottery of minority status. The sad thing is that there are many people who were given what someone else earned that now have doubts about their self worth. It was an unwise approach to leveling the playing field and it still is.

I think we would have been wise to expand programs that gave minorities an opportunity to prepare a little longer, so they could compete without having the standards lowered for them. Doing so would have provided the needed opportunities without taking away the satisfaction of achievement.