“Affirmative action?! Affirmative action –…. Affirmative action means to give jobs and other privileges only to them – even when it means discriminating against more qualified people….. Such things are absolutely unfair. ”
not necessarily.
How does a college determine who is qualified? The typical way is a test. Give the test (SAT) to everyone and the one with the higher score is assumed to be more qualified.
Now is that the best way to determine who is qualified?
IT certainly depends on what the “qualification” is. Say the college values hard work. Who worked harder to get a 1400 on the SAT. The white kid who grew up in a stable home, had parents pay for his tutors everyone he knows went to school. Or the inner city kid who grew up with a single mother whose brother was shot by a rival gang who would be asked to babysit siblings instead of going to school, while his mother worked 2 jobs. And struggled and finished high school and was able to get a 1300 on the SAT ( This is a real person I know).
We would all agree (I assume) that the second person worked much harder to get where he is. Why doesn’t that make him more qualified? again it depends on how you define “qualified”
And furthermore, isnt it better for society, to help people like this out. He is a doctor now the odds off his kids growing up the way he did, or end up lik his brother are almost nil.
(I would structure it in a non-race way though as there are white kids who grow up that way too)