Thursday, November 02, 2006

Affirmative Action: Vote NO!

On November 7th at the voting booth affirmative action will be on the ballot. It has been worded to say if you want the abolish it vote YES. Go to dontvote.com and find out the canidiates postion.

PURPOSE
Affirmative action began as a corrective measure[1] for governmental and social injustices against demographic groups that are said to have been subjected to prejudice in areas such as employment and education. The stated goal of Affirmative Action is to sufficiently counter past discrimination such that a strategy will no longer be necessary: the power elite will reflect the demographics of society at large.
Targeted groups may be characterized by race, gender, or ethnicity. In India, the focus has mostly been on undoing caste discrimination. In South Africa, the focus has been primarily race-based and, to a lesser extent, sex-based discrimination. When members of targeted groups are actively sought or preferred, the reason given is usually that this is necessary to compensate for advantages that other groups are said to have had (such as through institutional racism or institutional sexism or historical circumstances).
The theory is that a simple adoption of meritocratic principles along the lines of race-blindness or gender-blindness will not suffice to change the situation for several reasons:
Discrimination practices of the past preclude the acquisition of 'merit' by limiting access to educational opportunities and job experiences.
Ostensible measures of 'merit' may well be biased toward the same groups who are already empowered.
Regardless of overt principles, people already in positions of power are likely to hire people they already know, and/or people from similar backgrounds.

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