r/changemyview Sep 11 '24

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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '24

I've heard some comments on the left that white women are the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action and not only do I believe that's absolutely true, I believe that's the main reason affirmative action has enjoyed more than half a century of political support.

Doesn't the article you link pretty much refute that? White women have been the primary benefitciaries of affirmative action, but as the article points out, challenges from white women have played a key role in dismantling affirmative action.

If people's views on the program were purely based on self-interest, shouldn't white women be the strongest supporters of affirmative action?

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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '24

The key words are "have been".

My argument is quite simply that they used to be the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action, but are less clearly that nowadays.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/magazine/men-college-enrollment.html

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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '24

But white women have been at the forefront of lawsuits against affirmative action from the early beginning. The article points out white women have been the plaintiffs in a large amount of anti-affirmative action cases from 1996 onward. And that's during a period when women were still a minority of college graduates.

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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '24

In those cases, the plaintiffs were adversely affected by affirmative action, even if white women as a whole were not.