To be fair, I think 'discriminatory' might be a better word. To me, 'racist' would infer some sort of hatred or dislike of one person or group because of their race. Clearly, in your example, there is no hatred or dislike (at least that I can see).
However, in your example, if it is wrong to NOT chose the minority candidate because they are a minority, it is equally wrong, regardless of the rationale, to NOT choose the white candidate because they are NOT a minority. On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Scott Stroz <boyz...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 2:54 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote: >>> >>> Though if I had to choose between two qualified middle-class kids and >>> they were basically equal except for race, I'd probably go for the >>> minority kid because the minority middle class is small and tenuous >>> and needs more help than the white middle class. >> >> Just curious, how is that not a racist statement? > > That is a fine question and it is one that does trouble me. It is > racist, in a very narrow sense, in that it is making a distinction > based on race. When we are discussing affirmative action policies that > take race into account, we are inherently making distinctions based on > race. The original, and ongoing, justification for the those > distinctions is that some groups (we can use African-American as an > example here) are historically underrepresented in situations like > college (to continue on with the previous example). If you grow up in > a situation where none of your family and friends went to college, > chances are higher that you won't aspire to go to college. The > expectations around you are qualitatively different than if you grew > up in a situation where the people you are exposed to did go to > college. > > Because the percentage of African-American citizens in this country > who have gone to college is lower than Caucasian citizens, the > likelihood of an African-American college applicant being one that > bucks the trend (not being exposed to an expectation of attaining > college education but pushing for it anyway) is higher. The hope is > that the percentage of African-American (and other) citizens who have > gone to college has equalized out with those of Caucasian citizens and > that essentially everyone has an equal environment (in the aggregate) > pushing for achievement and success. And, of course, individuals will > always be exceptions to all the rules, but we are dealing with > policies which are formulated in the abstract. And we, hopefully, > will always be trying to improve achievement and expectations > regardless of race. > > The fact of the matter is that people who go to college tend to have > people around them who have gone to college. So by trying to increase > the number of people from underrepresented groups, like > African-Americans, amongst the college population we increase the > likelihood that future generations will have less disparity amongst > the representation of their ethnic groups in the college population. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:323300 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
