2012-05-14, 06:38 PM
IMO this has become more about socioeconomic status than about race relations. Yes minorities especially African American and Latino populations are disproportionately represented when compared with the national population distribution, but that's a result of dozens of literally century old racial circumstances combined with hundreds of modern difficulties that quite simply cannot be unraveled.
You initially state that all you want is "an equal playing field", but never state anything about how to implement this or measure it. I'm forced to assume you'd some sort of affirmative action.
Well wake up and look around. Life isn't fair. No one regardless of race, gender, finances, or any other measure of birth right has an equal playing field. The entire system of inherited wealth is set up to make sure that the sins or virtues of the father (and mother) are inherited by the son (or daughter). While the US does allow the opportunity for advancement, it does not create a "fair" meritocracy nor is one even possible imo.
This does not mean that we, as a society, shouldn't try to keep things fair by providing opportunities like public education. It does mean that the burden for a well reasoned argument including: quantifiable problem with identifiable cause, logical solution, quantifiable identification of progress to measure competition. What can (should) we do to whom for how long? If 200 years after the civil war you continue to advocate affirmative action to counter the disparity in inherited wealth, when do we stop? In another 200 years?
Because I'm sure my own biases influenced my thoughts, feel free to attack that I'm the white son of a middle class family living in the suburbs. I've had it pretty damn good for my life and I know better (smarter, harder working, etc) people than me have started in much more difficult circumstances and deserve the same opportunities I had. I just have no idea how to implement a correction or even fully identify the problem.
You initially state that all you want is "an equal playing field", but never state anything about how to implement this or measure it. I'm forced to assume you'd some sort of affirmative action.
Well wake up and look around. Life isn't fair. No one regardless of race, gender, finances, or any other measure of birth right has an equal playing field. The entire system of inherited wealth is set up to make sure that the sins or virtues of the father (and mother) are inherited by the son (or daughter). While the US does allow the opportunity for advancement, it does not create a "fair" meritocracy nor is one even possible imo.
This does not mean that we, as a society, shouldn't try to keep things fair by providing opportunities like public education. It does mean that the burden for a well reasoned argument including: quantifiable problem with identifiable cause, logical solution, quantifiable identification of progress to measure competition. What can (should) we do to whom for how long? If 200 years after the civil war you continue to advocate affirmative action to counter the disparity in inherited wealth, when do we stop? In another 200 years?
Because I'm sure my own biases influenced my thoughts, feel free to attack that I'm the white son of a middle class family living in the suburbs. I've had it pretty damn good for my life and I know better (smarter, harder working, etc) people than me have started in much more difficult circumstances and deserve the same opportunities I had. I just have no idea how to implement a correction or even fully identify the problem.