Affirmative Action Banned!

My state (Michigan) has wisely followed in the foosteps of California and banned racist/sexist affirmative action programs in Michigan, that would have discriminated against people based on nothing but their gender or the color of their skin, all in the name of promoting equality.  

It passed by a pretty wide margin 58% - 42% of the vote.. or, another way of looking at it: 

2,137,574  ---  YES on stopping AA
1,552,459  ---  NO on stopping AA

Hopefully this'll spread like wildfire throughout the rest of the states. 

>>211

You must be very young or naive. Sometimes, I seriously yearn for those days when I could so easily perscribe to such a simple and optimistic worldview.

>>215

1a: Making assumptions about people based on their race is always going to cause problems, humans are not perfect beings and you cannot simply say "oh well it's their fault for not being perfect so I'm not going to change my policies". Thus we must only use such actions in extreme circumstances and resort to treating people equally as soon as we can.

I disagree; this approach simply hasn't panned out long term according to a racial disparity that is expressed in just about every facet of our culture and society. It's my firm belief that once whites are lumped in the "discrimination stew" along with everyone else; race relations will improve because everyone is dealing with the same adversities, even racism. You seem to think perfect equality entails everyone, regardless of race, being treated fairly. Well, from my worldview the world is hardly fair...so my idea of perfect equality is everyone, regardless of race or gender, being treated unfairly.

1b: RAA does not cover all instances of discrimination and makes assumptions about people based on their race. Other replacements such as increasing civil rights enforcement, regulation of employment to ensure companies which do not choose the highest qualified prospective employee are investigated and compensation programs based on the actual priviledges people have been denied fulfil the same objectives.

The only assumption made is that a meritable person was rejected for employment because of their race. "Increasing Civil Right Enforcement" is too vague of a phrase for me to take it as a serious deterrent to discrimination. You might as well just tell me to "Stay the course" or "Let things continue they way they have".

2: Wealth isn't the only cause of racial disparity and if RAA was necessary it could only ever be a temporary measure.

It took a certain degree of social engineering to get where we are. And I don't think this engineering has the best interests of the commonwealth in mind. My suggestions are in the vein of using social engineering for the good of the commonwealth; so of course AA would be temporary and there would come a point where AA won't be nessacary. But, as for dealing with the present...AA will work just fine.