cyn....I am still interested in your thoughts on a meritocracy based on the questions I raised earlier:
Is the college admission system based on a meritocracy?.....when according to the preponderance of studies on the subject, standardized admission tests may have a bias against minorities?....or when legacy admissions are given to kids whose parents or grand parents attended the university? or that affluent white kids are more likely to be able to afford pre-test tutorials, with sample questions from previous tests and buy the opportunity to achieve a higher score?
Is it a meritocracy when white small business owners are more likely to get loans at better rates than minority small business owners? (see post #44).
Regarding women and AA....before Title 9 (an AA program) provided some level of equity in athletic scholarships, was it a meritocracy that boy soccer players or swimmers or tennis players or golfers had access to full athletic scholarships and girl soccer players or swimmers or golfers did not?
BTW, Larry Elder has often said he benefited from AA.
-----Added 30/11/2008 at 03 : 01 : 39-----
Here is example on another issue....disparity in prison sentencing and the criminal justice system based on race.
Generally, a state issue; this is from the Wisconsin State Sentencing Commission, but similar results can be found in many states:
Quote:
African-Americans and Hispanics convicted of drug trafficking in Wisconsin are more likely to wind up in prison than white drug dealers, according to a report on race and sentencing by the state Sentencing Commission.
Compared with whites, Hispanics are 2 1/2 times as likely to be imprisoned, while blacks are nearly twice as likely to end up behind bars for dealing drugs, according to the report issued last month.
The amount of racial disparity found in sentences increased as the offense severity decreased. Less severe crimes, such as drug trafficking, robbery, burglary and third-degree sexual assault, showed greater levels of prison/probation racial disparity than more severe offenses such as armed robbery, sexual assault of a child and first- and second-degree sexual assault.
(side bar) Among all offenses examined, compared with whites, black offenders were 1.7 times as likely to receive a prison sentence, while Hispanic offenders were almost twice as likely to go to prison.
Drug sentences worse for blacks - JSOnline
|
While other factors (such as access to expensive, top quality legal counsel as opposed to inexperienced public defenders) may influence sentencing, should the racial factor be ignored?