affirmative action?

[Kellopalopalis]

Could someone please explain why Affirmative Action is good? I can't bring myself to agree with it, or fully disagree with it, and I can't understand why we have it. I can't figure this out, and I'm waiting to be persuaded.

[Odracir]

It's not. Even as a Mexican living in the US, I disagree with it. Will I take all of the benefits it gives me? Of course, but that's just being smart, and I'm not stupid and stuborn. If you want equal rights for everyone, why should you reject someone from being admitted to a school even if they are more qualified than someone else just because of race? That's hurting minorities, not helping them.

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

From what I have seen, afrimative action was needed in the 1970s to get minorities into universities, white-collar jobs, and more. Basically, to get people used to diversity. Now it is out dated and discrimnatory. The guy who pushed for it thought afrimative action would only be needed for five years. I forget who the guy was, but I read this in The 10 Things You Can't Say in America, by Larry Elder.

[Parthini]

When I got that issue for Parthini, I freed all colleges so anyone can go to college... I guess that's why my govt. is basically run by the darn Education Dept and my tax is 63%...

GPP

[Down under there]

One viewpoint I have heard that seemed to make sense is that no minorities need affirmative action except American blacks. The reason for this is that the impact of slavery is still being felt economically. Mexicans, Chinese, Indians, and other minorities were never enslaved by us. Therefore, they need no affirmative action.
I don't have strong feelings on the affirmative action issue, but this seems like the best solution.

[Bad Infinitum]

Why can't everyone be treated like everyone else? We're all human.

I think that affirmative action is racist against your everyday white man. Being an everyday white man, I'm sure this sounds racist, but honestly!

A teenage girl in Colorado or somewhere was rejected from every ethnic club in her high school because she wasn't black, Mexican, Asian, or Pacific Islander. Feeling left out and depressed, she started a Caucasian Club to try to fit in, and she was sued and I think she might have been expelled.

Racism goes both ways. Just because our great-great-grandfathers enslaved the great-great-grandfathers of modern blacks doesn't mean we owe them more opportunity than we get ourselves.

I'm not a white supremacist, and I am not racist. I'm an equalist.

[Alfonia]

(first I should say I know almost nothing about affirmative action)
I agree with Ad Infinitum. Everyone that has a mind, body and soul is human. Human beings should be treated all the same, no matter if they're gay, women, black or whatever.

[TheSensitiveNewAge]

As to the issue of reparations, I had ancestors on both sides of my family fight for the Union. So shouldn't get a pass or something for having more tolerant ancestors? Also, many of the Irish and Chinese immigrints may as well had been slaves whether working on sugar farms in Hawai, coal mines in Pennsylvanai, or railroads in the West. So shouldn't they get something?