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I may regret this. I swear I'm not trying to start a thread arguing whether or not Affirmative Action is good or evil. Also, there may be a thread that has things that would fit in this one. I just wanted to start a topic that would allow all those brainstorms to come together.
It seems to me that many people, regardless of their stance on Affirmative Action, believe that a better plan could be hatched and put into effect. I'd like this thread to be a discussion about ways to encourage minorities to make the best of themselves, and ways to encourage the country to be more accepting of the tidal wave of change that would occur if such a thing could happen.
Please, let's not argue about the wrong- or rightness of AA.
I wish I could say that I had a brilliant idea about this. I really don't. I do believe that a lot more education needs to take place, not just for students, but for parents. IMO, a lot of parents are some how failing in the fundamental necessity of building the self-esteem of their children. If we could engrain that into this generation of parents, I believe that it would be passed down to the next. That would do wonders for helping minorities to test their limits of success. I think if there were a wave of minorities that were prepared and motivated to be successful, America would have no choice but to submit to the power that it would carry.
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Self-esteem is a composite of a variety of things - some internal and some external. It's about knowing that it is okay to simply "be" - be a girl, be a boy, be alive. It's about learning as an infant that your needs will be met, as a toddler you can safely learn about your world, as an older child you can see differences and accept them even while questioning them. It's about learning (through doing and positive reflection and feedback, including those "negative" messages of 'this particular behavior is not okay') that you are a competent and confident human being in this world, and that there are many others that are competent and confident from all walks of life, beliefs and ways of doing things and being.
It's about learning that you make a difference - that you matter. In your family, your church or faith community, your school, your clubs and sports, your town, state, nation. It's about learning that our world is a wide, wonderful world with many differences and many similarities and that these are just a part of life.
It's about learning to accept that we are all expressions of God or the Creator or the Supreme Being or the creative energy/force and that just perhaps, part of our job here on this earth is to recognize and honor those varying expressions.
These are things that I think stem from family - since that is where we start our life's journey and there are many ways for families to explore this. No family is the same, nor should they be, they will all explore these ideas differently - which is part of the wonderfulness of all our differences and similarities.
So, perhaps if we start there, the rest will follow?
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I think part of the issue is the glamorization of professions like sports and music that can give the impression that the only way to get out of poverty is to "hit the lottery" and become an NFL star. It appears to me that our culture gives the impression that whether you work hard or not, you cannot succed without some specialized ticket from the government or super human talents. I am certain that for Blacks in this country, this was once the case, that hard work really didn't matter. I think that this is no longer however. Hard work, results in rewards. To argue otherwise is to argue that there are people who would rather not hire a black than make more money. Free market forces an be used to make people see eye to eye on many things.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I think we need to start back at the beginning. We can't change families, and we can't change the poverty level with just a snap of our fingers. What can be done is to reinvest in education, beginning with the youngest grades and working up. If the kids get a late start it affects them the rest of their lives as they get laughed at by other kids for being dumb, as they begin to hate school more and more, and as their apathy for learning grows. Everyone talks about education, yet we still lack the great teachers (I know I wouldn't want to be a teacher because of the lack of pay and prestige, and having to go on strike every few years to get a fair increase in wages or health care) or even the money in many schools to buy books.
Perhaps we could make teaching/mentoring mandatory, like how some countries declare that serving in their armed forces is mandatory for their citizens. Everyone who graduates from college has to teach for a year or two in public grade/high school, preferably in a field related to what they're studying. There could be a test program in a few of the states, starting with the state run colleges. Of course, some college loans would have to be deferred during those teaching years because the teachers wouldn't be able to pay off the loans with the low wages they receive. The years they spent teaching and the frustration with the amount of money the schools receive would affect a lot more people then, and perhaps that would be enough to get more funding.
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Affirmative action based soley on economic status would serve as a quick fix as opposed to being no fix like affirmative action now, sorry couldn't help it.
A long term solution could be the equalizing of basic education. Basically as of now people in poor neighborhoods have worse educational facilities. From there it becomes virtually impossible to move up in the economic ladder. The reason for this is local control of schools. Local control means local funding which means as much as local residents can afford to pay in taxes. Children in wealthier areas will attend better schools, even public ones, because their parents pay more to the school district. Basically we need federal control over schools. Federal control could mean truly equal schooling for all. With equal schooling I don't think affirmative action would be necessary to any extent. I would guess a constitutional admendment would be needed for that. So that's my plan.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote: I'd like this thread to be a discussion about ways to encourage minorities to make the best of themselves, and ways to encourage the country to be more accepting of the tidal wave of change that would occur if such a thing could happen.
I hear the possibilities of starvation and poverty are wonderful motivators for everyone to make the best of themselves.
As to 'a tidal wave of change', why do you expect that to happen if minorities make the best of themselves?
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: Affirmative action based soley on economic status would serve as a quick fix as opposed to being no fix like affirmative action now, sorry couldn't help it.
I think it's cool to state your opinion on AA, just not try to convince someone else about it. So that's cool.
quote: As to 'a tidal wave of change', why do you expect that to happen if minorities make the best of themselves?
In all honesty, I think what would happen is that there would be no more crying opression...that would no longer be an excuse. Therefore the doors truly would be open to everyone, and no one would have an excuse not to take advantage of it.
Posts: 264 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I think we need to make it known that there are colleges out there with 100% acceptance rates. I'm in a mainstream class for the first time in my life ( ) and am shocked at the number of people who don't even try because it wouldn't be "cool." I think we need to make doing well in school, or at least trying cool. I think we need to let people know that they can have a GPA of 1.0, and still go to college. I think we need to make a tutoring program that goes to the students, rather than making the students go to it. I would have no problem tutoring the people I see in my government class. But I know they would never go and get tutoring, and there's no way I can volunteer without sounding incredibly condescending.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
My plan: just plain don't have a little question that asks you your race on the application.
Addmittedly a decent number of places do interviews (especially if we're talking about non-college AA) and I'm not sure what to do about that exactly. It seems clear though, that when an application asks you your race they're going to give someone a disadvamtage based on it.
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newfoundlogic, I'm awfully skeptical about giving the federal government control about anything we don't absolutely have to. The more "territory" a government has to cover, the more hamhanded it is about local issues. Besides, I'm not sure equal funding would best serve the country; we may well be better off having some people get a really good education even if it means some people get a lousy one than having everyone get a mediocre education.
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) and am shocked at the number of people who don't even try because it wouldn't be "cool." I think we need to make doing well in school, or at least trying cool. I think we need to let people know that they can have a GPA of 1.0, and still go to college. I think we need to make a tutoring program that goes to the students, rather than making the students go to it. I would have no problem tutoring the people I see in my government class. But I know they would never go and get tutoring, and there's no way I can volunteer without sounding incredibly condescending.
