>>>>>>>>Our newspapers and TV's introduced Obama's elect as end of racism at USA. Is it just a wish?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111208dntexklan.36c6b7b.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I would not call it an end of racism. I do think it shows we have come quite a ways, though.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I agree. The racism will stop with the end of affirmative action.
>>>>>
>>>>>Unlikely. I'm not a big fan either, but if you think racism doesn't transcend affirmative action, you're dreaming.
>>>>
>>>>I think it's the other way around. You'll know the racism is gone when everybody agrees there's no need for affirmative action. IOW, when the negative action vanishes, so can the affirmative.
>>>
>>>No. When everybody agrees there's no need for affirmative action, and that agreement is not racially motivated, then maybe. But since a lot of racists hate the idea of affirmative action (not everybody who doesn't like it is racist, but some are), simple agreement that it's not needed is certainly not good enough.
>>
>>There is a lot of racism implicit in the assumptions on which race-based affirmative action is based and on the paternalism some of the well-meaning folks who often defend it the most vehemently. Affirmative action is a very good idea. Race-based affirmative action is racist.
>
>What is the other kind of affirmative action? And why would the principle be different?

See my message to Alan. If you are admitting students on affirmative action you don't need to know the color of their skin to look at them as individuals and decide someone with income, parental support and a certain quality of secondary education who shows initiative and potential can have those factors weighed against what rich kids with SAT prep counseling, ivy league parents etc have accomplished. In other words, see people as individuals, not as part of "groups" which have no intrinsic meaning - such as the amount of melanin in the skin. My grand-daughter has two college educated parents, has lived and travelled all over the world, was taught to read by her parents before she started school etc but would qualify for race-based affirmative action consideration over some distant cousins who are hard-scrabble West Virginia white kids whose parents are barely literate and who live near the poverty line and who go to rurul schools where traditionally only about 10% of the 60% who graduate ever go to college.

There are lots of ways to level the playing field - I'm all for that. Race-based preferences perpetuate racism, identity politics and perceived and real unfairness.