frost, is your position that most black kids join gangs, and that most gangs deal drugs, and that most members of black communities are unsuccessful?
because those positions are held directly opposite to the data.
most black kids do not join gangs, of the ones who do, most join traditional street gangs. traditional street gangs do not deal drugs.
most members of black communities grow up and lead crime-free lives in whatever jobs they can secure...whether that's "success" to you is another matter altogether.
my experience is that discussions regarding affirmative action are often in relation to higher education and career promotions.
but only a sliver of people in any given work context are promoted and a fraction of our population attends higher education.
I'm not sure why the discussion fell to trying to figure out why urban black youth are not particularly concerned about promotions in a professional career or getting into Harvard or UCLA. The only people who will really care about your newly minted JD are other people with JD's. The only people who will care about my PhD will be another university or a legal policy think tank. Neither of our degrees is going to give us so much as a soda, much less respect from pretty much any regular person walking down the street. I hesitate to say whether it'll get you much in whatever firm you go work for, too!
Seriously, you've got a sharper mind than asking why kids don't think going to school is worth a shit.
How many of your cohort actually finished? I'd be surprised if it was much more than 50%. So even taking the weirdos who thought to themselves at age 13 "I'm going to be a lawyer" (and if you didn't realize it by now, we were fucking weird and not the typical 13 year old), and even those who actually made it to law school, even those self-selected few didn't make it all the way. It was a Big Deal when you passed your exams. So big of a deal that you posted it on an anonymous internet forum. It was a big deal because it was a difficult and rare accomplishment. Did you accomplish that feat all by your lonesome?
What do people think affirmative action does? Does it fund personal tutors for kids in the ghetto? Who does their math homework...an IRS agent?
Does someone personally hold their dick when they pee?
By the time someone is applying to Stanford, haven't they already proved their own ambition enough?
All AA seems to do is make clear, when you get to a certain level we're going to make sure not to lose you because of a trait you didn't have any say in.
Now I've got a thread here that is arguing that white males are walking around society believing that no matter what they do, no matter their personal achievements, they will be limited in their success on the basis of being white.
Why, if personal responsibility is so important as being claimed in these threads, do these people not conclude that they failed to get what they were after because they weren't good enough? Why are a group of white males defending affirmative action against a group of non-white males in these threads?
It seems like the disappointment is that, given a few slots made available to minorities through various programs, there aren't enough to go around.
Out of a handful of people vying for acceptance, one or two make it in. Meanwhile, the back door is open for anyone who has the money or connections.
Somehow this is taken as evidence that there is no problem at the structural level...
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Last edited by smooth; 12-02-2008 at 04:13 PM..
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