Those issues are on the ballot to bring out the bigot vote in those states, guaranteeing a negative set of voters against Obama. You can say what you want about Republicans, but they do put together a battle plan for elections. Now watch. One of those states will be the Florida problem come November 6th.

I honestly feel that Affirmative Action is a band-aid solution to an open wound that needs stitches. If the government and states would take seriously the task of making every school from kindergarten to 12th grade quality schools (Translation, you won't need to send your kids to another school in the suburbs for a good education because the one in your neighborhood would be just as good), then there would be no need for Affirmative Action. Also, I hate how it is assumed that any Black person in any position is there because they are a token or the benefit of Affirmative Action.

However, until quality education is truly provided, I support Affirmative Action because it is something to answer this legacy of inequality. I would love for these discussions on Affirmative Action to address the legacy of "Affirmative Action" for white people. They get into good schools, positions, etc. due to knowing someone,their color, having family money, etc. For every Black student I may have questioned their ability to be in college, I have questioned far more white students. White students don't have to deal with stigmas or anything, if they seem a little dim-witted their intelligence is not questioned. Whereas, by virtue of being a Black student our intelligence is always in question and we are always trying to prove ourselves worthy.

I agree with khia213 - this is part of a GOP battle-plan to instill doubt in Obama. We gays were the target the last time around (even though Kerry was pretty clear that he supported bigotry against gays just as much as Bush)

I personally have mixed feelings about AA but agree with b.i.g. - "looking the part" is such a huge part of getting the types of jobs that let you get ahead. If you're a pretty blond girl, you can be an utter moron and still get hired and promoted. How else but AA do you begin to reverse this self-perpetuating system of hiring your own kind?

I understand the opposition to AA on principle alone, but I feel like it's missing out on some very real practicalities about the world we live in.

I think the issue of affirmative action is so complex. I'm a black american that attended well funded public schools with a mostly white student body. I did well not because I'm black, but because I'm a competitive mutha*watchyomouth*. For me, affirmative action doesn't make sense.

But for somebody with less access to the same type of education that I had, but with the same drive and competitive nature…something should be done to give them access to higher education. AND notice how I didn't use race as a qualifier.

When it comes to race…I turn into a economist instead of a racist. I would award the same affirmative action to a white person in a trailer park that I would to a black person in public housing.

I don't think this was placed on the ballot because of Obama, since Ward Connelly has been on an anti-AA roll since California. I am a major supporter of Affirmative Action, but black_ivy_grad said it best: at some point you get so damn tired of people always questioning your intelligence and if you only got there because of some free handout.

It should benefit lower income people and people who are 1st generation college attendees in their families.

As is, what it's detractors see is lowering the bar for people. Lesson: black and Latino people are less intelligent.
In reality though, the GOAL is to increase diversity in universities and in the workplace. I see that it can definitely be beneficial in the workplace because they are actively recruiting qualified underrepresented minority candidates. This isn't to say that some or all the minority students recruited are unqualified or undeserving of a good education. From my experience, I've seen that the "affirmative action students" who don't thrive are those who had inadequate preparation. Something like 1 in 3 of the students from my school went to private school. Private schools pretty much always do a better job at giving students the foundation they need to thrive in college. First day of class comes. The private school kid or good suburban public school kid are in the same class with kids whose teachers basically babysat them. They didn't have the AP classes offered at their schools. They likely studied for the SATs by themselves while the rest got prep courses and mommy quizzing you on vocab.

There is a girl from Liberia who is homeless. Her parents had to leave when they lost their house. She decided to stay and live in a homeless shelter for teens. This child gets up at 6, takes the bus to the school near her old house, goes to class, takes a train across down, pulls a 7 hour shift at Dunkin Donuts, leaves work at 10 p.m., does homework before going to sleep. She got into Harvard. Her school is probably not doing much college prep as she didn't really think there were lots of options. She applied to T-accessible schools only.
Now compare her to a kid from Andover.

@oogie: no doubt Connerly is no johnny-come-lately to the anti-AA game, but the money & marketing muscle come from the GOP who are choosing their timing strategically. Connerly's face is also useful to those who would say anti-AA is just motivated out of racism.

@daria: I believe this is Obama's position as well. Unfortunately, any sort of "redistribution" of any kind pisses off the kind that have had "it" all along. (Just saw the O'Reilly interview of Hillary…)

The fact that people use affirmative action to look at successful blacks and latinos as undeserving is just another symptom of the same problem that makes people object to a.a. in the first place: They don't realize how deep white privilege runs.

Of course a.a. is an inelegant solution to a complex problem - sometimes, people who are truly less qualified but equally privileged *will* get a leg up - but in the vast majority of cases, existing unfairness will be slightly remedied. It's like what Winston Churchill (I think) said about democracy: it's the worst form of government we have, but better than all the alternatives (or something like that; you see what I'm getting at).

I personally believe Affirmative Action is part of the way of dealing with institutionalized prejudice in this nation. If the government were actually fixing the problems we have in our public school system, things would be different. But since the public school system in many cities is still garbage, AA is all we have right now.

I hate how everybody makes it seem as if AA allows under qualified blks to get into schools. As if grades and test scores play no part. We still have to meet the qualifications, it's not "open-admission" for blks. After the standards have been met, there's nothing wrong with putting race into consideration in order to encourage diversity. Even with AA, whites are still the majority in these schools.

Affirmative Action should be used to help those who cannot afford to go to university. In Australia, a certain amount of places are always held for students who depend on government loans to get there. It's how I got in to university.

Affirmative action has the potential to do a lot of good, and thus, it should be kept. I'm not too familiar with how affirmative action works in the US, though.

Hear, hear black_ivy_grad! I absolutely agree with you. So few people are willing to address the role that white cultural advantage plays for so many students. The thing that annoys me the most about this is so many whites (and others) think that affirmative action somehow disenfranchises qualified whites. The fact that they can make this claim while simultaneously allowing urban schools to suffer is just disgusting. These same people refuse to admit that the group to benefit most from affirmative action has been straight white women. They also refuse to acknowledge that spoiled rich white kids with connections, and legacy admissions are largely to blame for the disenfranchisement of many qualified white students. How is it that people are so up in arms about "unqualified" blacks in positions of power when the George Bush's of the world are the real problem (i.e. dumb as shit but his daddy still managed to get him into Yale AND Harvard)? The only ground on which opposers of AA have to stand is that of racial supremacy which is total bullshit. In the word's of Dave Chappelle, "this racism is killing me!"

@SunFresh - It is not racist to acknowledge that the inequalities that exist in this country often break along racial/cultural lines. I understand your argument for poor whites and I agree that they should have access to equal education and other resources as well. However, if the white person living in that trailer park you mentioned is a women, she is already covered by AA. The purpose of affirmative action is not to compensate for your blackness, it is an attempt to level out institutional bias that may be leveled against you because of other's perceptions of your blackness. Research shows that racial bias (sometimes over something as simple as your name) is still a factor in hiring practices.

I will also say that I do feel the system should be revamped. I think quotas can be damaging. Especially when schools try to use the excuse that they've already met their quota as a reason to reject qualified Asian students. As black_ivy_grad has already noted, I don't believe AA should be a permanent solution but it is better than nothing for the time being.

Ask black students who attended college before Affirmative Action if their intelligence was often questioned and see what they tell you.

HELL YES, nothing is new under the sun.

From my understanding, AA was installed to insure that equally qualified black students and workers got jobs that they would have been passed over for.

"I hate how everybody makes it seem as if AA allows under qualified blks to get into schools. As if grades and test scores play no part. We still have to meet the qualifications, it’s not “open-admission” for blks. After the standards have been met, there’s nothing wrong with putting race into consideration in order to encourage diversity. Even with AA, whites are still the majority in these schools"

I love you Ike because you wrote ^^^. The truth the way I see. Futhermore, rich kids benefit more than anyone from their own form of AA.

Korolev, would object to affirmative action for the aboringnals of Australia?