Sunday, January 31, 2010

Is Affirmative Action Right?

Tori's mention of affirmative action made me think of the last unit. When we were discussing the possible essay topics for the unit test, we mentioned the equilibrium between keeping the tradition and assimilating into the new culture. What about diversity? What factor determines the perfect ratio of diversity?

-Joanne

3 comments:

  1. That's really tough. I mean, ideally, I think a good diversity ratio would be one that reflects societal numbers. I am not sure if that is possible though. A more obtainable diversity might be one that includes a large enough people of different backgrounds that most groups have a role model of sorts. Even that would be difficult to make work though.

    -Melissa C.

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  2. Statistics have shown that at least in schools, there is no academic advantage to diversity. Having a melting pot of cultures doesn't improve test scores, that is to say. But I don't think that it's academic performance that matters here. It's developing in kids at an early age a non-discriminatory mindset. Granted, prejudices will not dissolve in one generation of kids, but diversity is important for ridding our society of hateful stereotypes.
    As far as ratios go, I'd say any that adequately reflects the ratio of minorities in the larger region is appropriate. You can't ship black kids from miles away into a community that has no black population because it would reflect a national percentage. Rather, diversity's aim should be to desegregate in communities where disproportionate ratios are a problem.

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  3. I do think diversity should be sought, but legally it gets caught up. The desegregation of communities where disproportionate ratios are a problem gets tougher when distinguishing between whether the segregation was de facto and de jure. De jure segregation may be subject to court-ordered desegregation methods, but de facto is more controversial. After the civil war, the North had been mainly de facto segregation and when court-ordered busing was established in the North the decision wasn't very popular.

    Diversity is considered a compelling state interest, so affirmative action can be used if it is narrowly tailored, but if statistically diversity is not helping, courts probably will end up ruling out affirmative action. However, I think diversity is beneficial socially and culturally. The exact, perfect ratio doesn't matter as much as the psychological effects, which probably can't be measured quantitatively.

    -- tori

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