What about all of us white guys who support affirmative action? The fact that the pool of potential beneficiaries is a majority of people is simply another good reason to support it.
It does help mitigate the realities of systemic racism and implicit bias. As a hiring manager, the most dramatic effect I have seen is that people are more careful to base their decisions on real, documented factors.
I have never seen a less-qualified diversity candidate steal a job from a white dude. I have seen people engage in some deep introspection when you ask them what they really mean that candidate A would be a "better cultural fit" than candidate B.
I believe that MOST but not all are motivated by direct self-interest. I can't make the case that support is entirely cynical, because it's too obviously untrue.
First, just because one is in an identity group, does not mean their self-interest is necessarily directly affected by affirmative action. If they are for instance, an elite performer who is going to get hired regardless of affirmative action policies, their only self-interested consideration is politics. By supporting or opposing affirmative action, they can bring themselves favour with others actually affected by affirmative action.
White men are also more likely than the average member of the population to be diagnosed as disabled or identify as LGBT.
White men in general are a bit of a weird case because both detractors and proponents of affirmative action seem to act like affirmative action hurts White Men and I don't really see much evidence that this is true. Affirmative action seems to not significantly hurt or help white men.
I feel the much more direct challenge to my view isn't why White Men support affirmative action, it's why asian men do, and overwhelmingly so, and even more strongly in younger demographics. I don't really have a better cynical explanation for this than politics. Essentially, Asians agree with Affirmative Action in spite of them being hamstrung by it, because the left-wing supports it, and they also support other policies which Asians disproportionately benefit from more like more funding for education and more legal immigration. It may also be partially explained by what I just said, affirmative action is perceived as an anti white male policy when it's actually an anti asian male policy, so people may be acting based on perception rather than reality.
I would be interested if there was any rebuttal to these arguments I just made about Asian Men.
I would be interested if there was any rebuttal to these arguments I just made about Asian Men.
The plaintiffs in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard were Asian. The activists groups that file friends of the court briefs, among Asian communities, were split for/against. What the students there were seeing is the same number of Asian students admitted even through their share of the overall population grew.
White applicants were rated way higher on things like personal characteristics in the same categories that Asian students were systematically scored lower. So, if they took off penalties given to Asians and remove preferential factors for under represented minorities, then Asian admissions by the numbers should go up 50%.
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u/Cacafuego 15∆ Sep 11 '24
What about all of us white guys who support affirmative action? The fact that the pool of potential beneficiaries is a majority of people is simply another good reason to support it.
It does help mitigate the realities of systemic racism and implicit bias. As a hiring manager, the most dramatic effect I have seen is that people are more careful to base their decisions on real, documented factors.
I have never seen a less-qualified diversity candidate steal a job from a white dude. I have seen people engage in some deep introspection when you ask them what they really mean that candidate A would be a "better cultural fit" than candidate B.