Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Obama's election should bring an end to Affirmative Action

Cynthetiq · 12-02-2008, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smooth

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.

I'd not say that open for anyone with money/power/connections since again, the seating at the table is limited.

I don't know why you are defending it. I'm just saying that I don't like it. I see it's place and understand why it exists, but I find that the role causes more strife than it does help from my own experiences.

I have concluded that when I knew it was the factor why I didn't get the job/promotion it was my fault. When I know that there are diversity programs in play, I cry foul.

What I'm troubled by is the fact that as a hiring manager, I'm trying to higher the best of the best, and have been told and been to training programs for hiring more diverse (read: not white) candidates. So even if I was to have found a wonderful Russian or Slavic (read: ethnic) candidate, even if that person was more qualified, I could not hire such an individual as they wanted more diversity within the ranks.

I learned how to skirt around these rules, I found the best diverse candidates in house and developed them to the skills that I wanted so that I could hire within and hire diverse. It was a win/win for me for many reasons. But barring the ability to have candidates to groom and pick from, if they didn't exist, I wasn't allowed to pick the best of the best. I had to pick minorities because that was the requirement albeit unspoken.