What are your views on Affirmative Action ?

A quick rundown: the UK does not currently have forms of Affirmation Action, since it views it as illegal "positive discrimination". It instead has a policy of "Positive Action", as detailed in the 2010 Equality Act: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/discrimination_e/discrimination_about_discrimination_e/equality_act_2010_discrimination_and_your_rights.htm

In Employment there is the two ticks scheme, which guarentees those who declare a disability an interview providing they meet the essential criteria , but you are correct that positive discrimination is illegal.

Or are you referring specifically to education, as this is in Educational Debate?

It basically says "your a minority, you need the governments help", which I think is wrong. Being in the United States, the standard is set lower for those minirities, and they have an easier time getting into university, getting jobs, whatever it may be. If you adopt AA, I feel that you are basically telling the minorities that they trash and need help, which like I said before, is wrong

Nearly 90% of respondents (consisting of employed black men and employed white women, the biggest beneficiaries of AA) participating in a 1995 Gallup Poll said that they did not believe their abilities/skills were put in doubt because of Affirmative Action.

And don't you think that possible psychological effects on some minority individuals' self-esteem are far less harmful to minorities than the horrendous institutionalized racism that they've faced for so long and still have to put up with? And I dispute the notion they have an "easier job" in getting gainful employment/education:

- blacks have twice the unemployment rate of whites (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- women still only earn 77 cents for every male dollar (US Bureau of Census)
- the record-high ~2.3 Million prison population is 40% black (US Bureau of Justice Stastics)
- black youth are 10x more likely to be arrested on drug offences than white youth, even though whites are far more likely to use (TIME)
- Hispanics are incarcerated at 1.8x the rate of whites (sentencingproject.)
- Hispanics and blacks on average face longer prison sentences than whites (U.S. Sentencing Commission)
- This is the most disturbing one for me: 1/3 of black males are either in prison, in jail, on parole, or on probation (U Wisconsin)

I can go on and on but I think you get my point. It is not easier on the whole for minorities (especially black/Latino men and women) to find employment or college acceptances than it is for whites. Especially considering the damaging effects a criminal record has on getting jobs/colleges. E.g: thanks to zero tolerance laws, drug offenders are denied from even receiving government assistance such as public housing, and are denied federal aid to attend college (US Department of Health and Social Services).

It is sad that the discriminatory is still present in the society in which we live, but Affirmative action will not and does not change that.

PEOPLE need to change the way they act, not have some law that just hides the TRUE ISSUE of discrimination.

Affirmative action is placed onto the minorities, but what about the non-minorities that are affected by this.

I know it won't change that, but the argument is that racism is so deeply entrenched in our institutions and establishments that it is impossible to eradicate. The Civil Rights Act was passed 5 decades ago and seemed to herald a new era, then Nixon began an unending unwinnable "War on Drugs" and everything regressed. This includes education; grade schools in predominantly non-white communities are almost always far worse off in terms of funding and quality.

And since minorities are still so terribly hamstrung by society, they really require aid in finding gainful employment + education.
'You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair'- President Johnson. LBJ hoped that when educational and other disparities were gone, then A.A. wouldn't be needed. But that's simply not the case, he'd be horrified at the "progress" that's been made




Society has absolutely failed to address the "true issue" though, that's the thing. That's why the Civil Rights Movement began and that's why JFK decided to begin A.A (by Executive Order, I might add). The debate/discussion hasn't yielded anything that would call for A.A. to become unnecessary. In a perfect world the problem would be solved through dialogue and better education, but sadly society hasn't given the necessary effort (or funding!) to make this a viable option



I hope I'm not being offensive when I say that any disadvantages whites encounter merely due to A.A. are not comparable to all those minorities have suffered for so long. Example: in 2011 according to the US Commerce Department, there were ~114 million employed whites and ~2.6 million unemployed blacks. So if somehow AA let the entire unemployed black population displace whites from their jobs (which wouldn't happen), only 2% of whites would be affected. Plus, the main reasons for job losses amongst the white majority are factory relocations, outsourcing, automation, and corporate downsizing (Ivins 1995, Philadelphia Daily News).

A short-term medicine which does not address underlying factors which are preventing minorities from attaining an equal level to their majority counterparts.

And as predicted, when we're talking about "minorities" and discrimination, it just seems to be about skin colour and ethnicity.

I agree with everything you are saying, except for the fact that AA has been around for around 50 years almost, and nothing has changed. In fact, it may have even gotten worse.

What do you mean?

To me, discrimination is discrimination, no matter what the intentions.

What do you mean?

How do you propose we address unconscious bias then?

(http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/421746.article explains some studies into unconscious bias against women in academia, https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/uk/ lets you test yourself for unconscious bias against/towards certain groups of people)