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Slumgullion Spitteler;319988 said:
What is so hard to understand? It's a way of restoring balance. WHITE MEN have had an historical advantage in matters of employment/acceptance/advancement in such areas...and -big secret- it's not because they're better than everyone else.
But what in the world is balance??? Should white people be taxed to provide monetary reparations for slavery? Should the government mandate that any given street in a town be populated by a certain percent of each race? Should I (and everyone else) issue an official written apology on behalf of my race? If you answer yes to any of these, then you need to take a moment of serious reflection on the ideas of personal liberty and personal responsibility.
Are the problems and the roadblocks and the setbacks that happen in my life any less significant because I'm white? Am I indeed responsible for southern slave owners because of the color of my skin? If I work hard and make some money, do I have to worry about people thinking I made that money because I'm white? If I am qualified for a job and am hired, do I have to stop and ponder if my success is due to the boss liking my white skin?
Slavery was awful and should never have been. The Jim Crow laws and other official discrimination against blacks through the 20th century in the US is unforgivable (in its own time and place).
History has happened. Lots of bad things happened in it. But for future generations, we have our own issues and problems and progress to achieve. We can't make everything right, but we have to do our best to make the future better. We, as a human race, can strive for perfection but due what I see as the beauty of the world, perfection is not a specific, unmoving and unchanging thing. "Progress" is not some sort of natural law that we can define easily and succinctly.
We have to remember the world is not an easy place. The terms of this world are not found in black and white (not a pun, I'm being very serious here). There are hard corners, and pitfalls, and setbacks. We can't sugarcoat everything and make it all better by putting things in the hands of others, or government, or the UN, or religious institutions.
All people living out their lives have to mover forward as best they can and strive for a better and brighter future. The founding fathers of the US wrote of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Life is a right and should be cherished. Liberty should be cherished every bit as much as Life. (which is why I cannot stomach Thelemen Toblerones communist "utopia").
And happiness is not guaranteed. Happiness is not something we can create, mandate or even protect. We can only pursue it. Which is why we strive to guarantee that pursuit of happiness, not happiness itself. Its hard, and we mess it up a lot. We tried to make reparations to Jewish people by forming Israel, and we all see how well that worked out.....
In general, large government bodies are ill-equipped at deciding what's "fair" and what is "balanced". As I said before, affirmative action is a poor bandaid on what is really a larger social ill. Opportunity is not given, opportunity is created by ones own hardwork, sacrifice and desire coupled with an open minded and educated public.
I believe I am one of many (most) in my generation, that if faced with a hiring decision between a black, hispanic, indian, chinese, white, so on and so forth, person, we'll make the right choice based on the facts before us and not on their ethnic origin. My bristling at affirmative action is certainly not from personal racist thoughts but from a perceived attack on my own sense of responsibility and ethics. The underlying implication is that I am not to be trusted to be fair and non-racist.
I'm not so naive as to believe that affirmative action is anything more than a government ploy for more control over the lives of the people it allegedly serves. It gets votes and it eases the consciences of those who feel they need to take guilt on their shoulders and feel better about themselves. It is just one more example of "people are not intelligent or principled enough to do the right thing, and therefore the government must step in and hamfistedly dictate who can hire whom, based on parameters they set regardless, irregardless of any particular situation."
