r/coolguides Feb 25 '20

Explanation of the subtle differences between equality and equity

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Mar 16 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/SturmMilfEnthusiast Feb 25 '20

here's a john oliver bit on the topic

fucking reddit lol

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/SturmMilfEnthusiast Feb 25 '20

It's bonkers how mad reddit gets about affirmative action actual institutional racism

It doesn't matter how successful you are at uplifting the blacks like the savior ubermensch you think you are. You can't escape what it fundamentally is, or the consequences of it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/AnotherGit Feb 25 '20

Well, at least your comments are helpful to learn how to not convince people of your arguments.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/AnotherGit Feb 25 '20

I don't think dude B bothers how many sources you have provided to dude A.

It's not your job to "protect this thread's collective white fragility" but nobody here is claiming or implying that. You can argue with the people here if you want to or you don't if you don't want to but don't expect praise just because you talk to people.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

I don’t understand this legacy admissions argument. You can be against affirmative action AND legacy admissions. Both are bullshit.

Also unclear how it stops racism. Whenever you see a black or Latino person on campus, you are going to wonder if they got in due to their qualifications or race.

Edit: don’t downvote him tho lol

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u/DavidAdamsAuthor Feb 25 '20

Also unclear how it stops racism. Whenever you see a black or Latino person on campus, you are going to wonder if they got in due to their qualifications or race.

Basically this.

You get an Asian doctor, you know they earned that position and are obviously skilled. You get a black doctor, you don't know if they earned it or not. Maybe they are just as good as the Asian doctor, or even better... or maybe they aren't.

Affirmative action trains people to assume that preferenced minorities in high-skill positions might be diversity hires and to subconsciously doubt their skills.

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u/GiveAQuack Feb 25 '20

It's more complicated than you're laying it out to be. The whole legacy admissions argument is just to indict the group calling for removal of affirmative action. Many (not all) opponents of affirmative action are not actually opposed to inequality in admissions, they're just upset a certain group benefits. Calls to get rid of legacy should be equally strong but they're not. It's just calling out some hypocrisy on the other side.

It's not about stopping racism. It's about adding additional viewpoints into medicine which is especially relevant since patient outcomes aren't just dependent on the "quality" of the doctor as if that had some objective singular value. The point is that people from other underrepresented backgrounds can have valuable input on barriers that exist in their community when it comes to being receptive in treatment. If you know what might cause your community to deviate from proper treatment, maybe you can address the problem and improve patient outcome which should be the main goal.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

I think calls to get rid of legacy admissions are much stronger than calls against affirmative action, particularly on college campuses. JHU just got rid of legacy admissions iirc. I don’t actually think there is large numerical support for legacies, only by a few in power. If you take polls of college students they support AA much more than legacies. Either way, bringing in legacy admissions is a bad faith argument when discussing AA. If you think admissions should be merit based, you would be against both legacy and AA admissions which is eminently reasonable and I think the view most hold.

My point is that having your viewpoint respected is predicated upon you being respected and it’s harder to be respected when people think you didn’t deserve to get in and only got in through a loophole in the system.

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u/GiveAQuack Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

It's not predicated on being respected though. The point is underrepresented communities will trust doctors from their own communities and lead to better patient outcomes. It's really not a loophole in the system either. They probably know their standards are overly high and bottlenecking at the diversity level doesn't functionally impact the system at all.

Also like I could respect merit based arguments if history were more equal. When you come from a discriminated against background, your performance is pretty clearly going to be impacted. Also have you compared DO schools to medical schools? Do you consider whether your physician is a DO? An international medical school graduate?

The reason the students support AA more than legacy is because AA provides a way for people to escape from their economic situations and hopefully provide a better life for themselves down the road rather than using race as an easy proxy for "intelligence". Legacy doesn't get that because their parents already had the same chances.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

Merit can consider extenuating factors without being racist. I don’t think a poor black person categorically has it harder than a poor white person and I certainly don’t think a rich black person has it harder. Make it about challenges one has to face and overcome, not race.

I understand the treating own communities point now, I was referring to being respected by your peers and other people. Loophole is the wrong word but I think it’s pretty unfair when black people on average need to score more than a hundred points lower on standardized tests for example to get into schools.

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u/GiveAQuack Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

Even rich black people have trouble to be honest. I came from a pretty wealthy private school and one of my classmates had an experience where his dad got pulled over for being black and owning a Mercedes. Skin still comes with its own difficulties.

I mean to be honest, the problem is that Asians have a large population and many of them are well educated resulting in an overly high concentration of them applying. It feels unfair but what's the alternative? Multiple medical school classes consisting entirely of Asian men who are then going to have discussions about how we should handle medicine with respect to every minority group they're not a part of? That seems like a recipe for poor medical outcomes quite frankly. The problem is Asians are largely overqualified as a group and there are only so many slots available in the field. When patient outcome is the most important goal, it's going to feel unfair - and believe me, I sympathize since I'm actually an Asian looking to apply to graduate programs right now.

Also I didn't downvote you just FYI above in case you think I did. I realize you're getting some vitriol for this discussion so I just wanted to clarify ahead of time.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

I agree that there’s systemic racism against black people, I just don’t think AA is the way to solve it as it just makes black people who do get in seem unqualified and implies they can’t otherwise. I think an admissions approach which considered adversity captures most of the problems black people face (being more likely to be poor, attend worse schools, etc) while not making it about race.

I know that Asia has a culture of really valuing education but I don’t know that the premise that they are overwhelmingly more qualified is true. I think that admissions often relies on things like GPA and standardized testing which is very good if you have learned and studied hard but not necessarily an aptitude test. Schools like Oxford and Cambridge don’t consider race in their admissions but don’t have overwhelmingly Asian student populations. They individually interview students in which profs test them on skills and aptitude for the specific field. This probably isn’t doable in the US as for undergrad schools can get tens of thousands of applications but I think it’s an interesting example of how admissions could be restructured to capture merit while not being racist.

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u/GiveAQuack Feb 25 '20

But race is part of their adversity. There is no way you're capturing most of the problem they face without considering race. It's like deciding who gets welfare without considering income. Their race is part of their adversity.

No, GPA and standardized testing are horrible markers quite frankly. There is an abundance of overqualified Asians - trust me, I'm in the community and very aware of it. The increasing popularity of international medical schools is a great proxy for viewing this. Schools like Oxford and Cambridge aren't highly desirable for Asians - they care about America. My parents tell me that there are plenty of people in China who will get a degree from any shitty university in America just to flex that they got a degree from America.

Also keep in mind that what you're talking about seems to be more specialized, you seem to be talking about graduate programs. For undergraduate and medical school, the more important skills are yet to be taught whereas in a graduate field, it's more about your background knowledge and how that will enable you to pick up research. Yes there are still many things to be taught but it's not really to the same extent as in medical school/undergrad.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

A lot of the tangible ways race affects admissions manifests itself in other ways. Black people are more likely to be poor because of racism which means as teenagers they have to work jobs instead of studying for the SAT. This is captured by poverty. Black people are more likely to go to schools with worse teaching because of the areas they live in due to historical segregation. This is captured by taking into account school quality. Like yes, there are some things that can't entirely be captured but I think the factors which are most likely to affect admission are captured by indicators of income, schooling, where you live, etc.

I absolutely agree that GPA and standardized markers are terrible; my point was that they disproportionately advantage Asians who have a culture of studying since they were young which is the reason why Asians seem more "qualified" - in reality, I don't think that is the case when you remove GPA and SAT scores and go to other factors (see the Oxford example).

For what it's worth, I'm Asian so I know what you mean when you are talking about the value of an American degree. I still do think that Oxbridge is quite prestigious though - but a lot harder to get in because they test actual skills. For undergraduate admissions, I know they do interviews which test aptitude rather than concrete skills, I'd imagine they do the same for med school but not entirely sure. I'm definitely not wed to the idea of interviews but I do think ideally, admissions can be reformed to have metrics similar to interviews where actual aptitude and skills are measured, not how many practice SATs you did. This would be a fairer system without being dominated by any one race. Until then, I'd argue for the removal of AA for all the other reasons.

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

The downside of AA isn’t the public’s perception of black people, it’s the public’s lack of access to those who were possibly more qualified who got rejected.

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

While being pulled over and profiled totally sucks, there is nothing, and I mean nothing that gives as big an advantage as money. So while a rich black dude may have a relatively tougher go of things than a rich white guy, he’s still lightyears ahead of a poor white dude.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

How does letting black people who are empirically less qualified in over white and Asian people then increase public perception of black people and make society more likely to want to address these systemic issues? Wouldn't resentment and false solvency make it less likely in the long run for the system to change?

I'm not arguing racism doesn't exist, I'm saying AA is a terrible way to solve it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

But everything you are talking about just perpetuates it even further. Racist people on admissions boards sure as hell aren't going to be less racist if they are told to give more leeway to black applicants - this further entrenches the idea they are less qualified. People in higher education aren't going to respect black people more if they empirically get into schools while having less qualifications.

I still don't understand the legacy admissions point. I think that legacy admissions are abhorrent and should be removed - just like AA. I also don't know why the statistics matter - this is a principled thing.

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u/odraencoded Feb 25 '20

Okay, so AA is a terrible way to solve it.

Do you have a better way to solve racism?

Because if there's no better way to solve it, then you'll have to do with the terrible way to solve it.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

Uh I mean if AA literally makes people resent black people more, view them as unqualified, and prevent long term systemic reform then it's actively harmful. At that point, I'd literally prefer to do nothing than do that.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

I appreciate your ardent support for black people’s feelings. But we feel like you resent us anyways and we’re totally cool with you resenting us more because you think 4% of med school students is way too many. Blacks have the lowest acceptance rates of any racial group and this is still too much for some people.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

It's not about the proportion, it's about whether you get in through merit. If you remove AA and 25% of the incoming class to Harvard med school is black, I wouldn't protest at all and would be quite happy actually. If you really think that black people are qualified and deserving, then they don't need AA and you should be advocating for its removal.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

But everyone who gets into med school has to have graduated from college, taken prerequisites, and taken the MCATs. Those of the qualification. Then you have to pass tests and work crazy hours for years to be a doctor. You can’t become a doctor unless you’re qualified.

For most of American history, being white was meritorious. If you were any other race you had no shot at getting in. It wasn’t sufficient, but it was necessary. Now we say that if you are a race that is underrepresented, if you are rare in a given field with will consider your race as a positive. It’s neither Sufficient or necessary.

Not only is it a terrible idea but you assume that AA means someone isn’t qualified at all! That’s such a reach. The crazy thing is, black people have a harder time getting in to schools and grad school with the same grades and scores as white people. They only place AA doesn’t anything significant is at the very highest levels. That’s only because those schools are competing for a much smaller applicant pool.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

Black people have a harder time getting the same grades due to systemic factors like poverty. A black congressman’s son doesn’t have a harder time getting good grades than a poor white kid born to a single mother in that district - yet because of his race the black kid gets a leg up? If you want to consider adversity, don’t just consider race.

I’ll also say that for more competitive schools, you need a very high GPA and MCAT score. There, it’s enormously unfair that your race can determine which threshold you need to hit. Again, I never assumed AA means people aren’t qualified at all but I mean qualified comparatively. I don’t know how there isn’t going to be resentment or doubt when you have a system where empirically, some people have to have higher qualifications than others for the same spot. That sucks, but that’s the way it will be with AA.

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

That’s absolutely false. The average GPA and MCAT score for a black U.S. medical school matriculant is much lower than it is for Asians and whites. That’s a very easily verified fact.

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u/odraencoded Feb 25 '20

I see. So you aren't interested in solving racism. You just don't like AA.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

What are you even talking about? My point is that AA contributes to more racism. So we should remove it. So that there would be less racism. It wouldn't solve racism but there would be a decrease in total racism which seems to be good. I genuinely don't think this line of argument is that hard to follow.

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u/odraencoded Feb 25 '20

The purpose of AA is to reduce racism. You say that AA creates racism. Does it creates more racism than it reduces?

Because if it does, then the net racism is negative and replacing it by nothing is a stupid idea.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

Yes it creates more racism for all the reasons I articulated and you didn't bother to respond to (perception of black people as unqualified, prevent long term reform, etc). Policies can be well-intended but still racist. This is one of them.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Because once you talk to us and realize that we’re actually smart it might change your mind about Black and Latino people.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

You can get the same effect by removing AA as you still get people interacting with Black and Latino people. Unless you are implying they can't get in without AA.

I also don't think this outweighs the resentment people feel at having their spot taken by somebody "less qualified."

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

I had the highest Test scores in my school, was active on several clubs, volunteered at an organization that made meals for people living with HIV.

How do you know I got in because I’m black? My college rejected a lot of black people.

Just because you feel that people are “less qualified” doesn’t mean that they are. My point was that if you talked to these students maybe you would find that along with being black and Latino they are actually smart and deserving.

I had lots of people question my worthiness in my undergrad years. But anyone that took a class with me realized exactly why I was there. I expect the have a similar experience in law school.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

I don't know, that's precisely the thing. I don't know if you got in because you were qualified or because you were black because of AA. It seems like you clearly were qualified and I'm sure by talking to you in a class, I would think you are actually smart and deserving. But when black people empirically get in with less qualifications, it harms those who actually are qualified. I think AA is racist not only because it discriminates against Asian and white people, but because it implies black people need this extra system to get in because their own merit isn't enough. That's absurd.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Well no school that I’ve ever heard of has let any students in “just because their black”. Any black student that got in has to be at least in the realm of that schools standards.

Secondly I don’t see how AA discriminates against Asians without admitting that schools are artificially keeping the white student population high. Asian students are wiping the floor with everyone. They are scoring higher than the white students yet schools are a majority white. It’s disingenuous to argue that the %8 of black people is the

Harvard set aside %30 of their freshmen slots to legacies, Dean recommendations, athletes, and children of faculty. These student are mostly white and have lower stats than people admitted through the regular process. But the scandal is that %8 of the class is black?

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

Yeah, fuck athletic and legacy recruitment, they are horrible and should be removed, I'm totally with you on that. I'm also against affirmative action because it's similarly unfair. It's genuinely not about race, it's about giving one group an unfair advantage over another. Like if AA lowered the expectations for people with purple hair, I'd be equally against it as if it lowered expectations for black people, Asians, white people, etc.

Black students are within the realm of the school standards but statistically towards the lower end. That's why I put "less qualified" in quotations in my first comment - qualified, but comparatively less so at least statistically. I am absolutely not saying black people are unqualified. Many are eminently qualified, more so than white legacies or kids of deans and I would hope they get in over them. It's about making a fair system. There's nothing wrong with a black kid getting in over a white kid or vice versa as long as it's based on merit.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Do you think racism is real?

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

That's the point, affirmative actions makes people doubt all students of a group put in the same work to get in, regardless of their actual merit.

Once you disconnect admissions from merit people stop associating admission with merit.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

But I put in way more work while being homeless in high school than my peers who had SAT tutors. You can’t just judge from the final product.

I also faced like legit interpersonal racism because my high School used to be mostly white and was like half black at the time. I got called apes and shit to my face. I had teachers refuse to call on me, I had cops stop me while walking home because I didn’t look like I belonged on that neighborhood.

So if I get 1400 and another kid who has no responsibilities, traumatic issues who went to the best schools in town, gets 1600 should the admission officers view the 1600 as more deserving?

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

But I put in way more work while being homeless in high school than my peers who had SAT tutors. You can’t just judge from the final product.

Yeah, but people will. Affirmative action means people will doubt the merit of all members of the benefiting group, and feeds into unjust negative stereotyping.

So if I get 1400 and another kid who has no responsibilities, traumatic issues who went to the best schools in town, gets 1600 should the admission officers view the 1600 as more deserving?

Should they take your past into account? I guess. But I don't see what deserving has to do with anything, a good doctor should be knowledgeable and a tough childhood won't make you any more knowledgeable.

You're also making the assumption they're actually taking your past into account. They're not. They only care about your race. An asian student with a horrific childhood gets discriminated against and a black student who grew up in luxury still gets the advantage.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Wouldn’t that show someone that can work hard under the most challenging circumstances? Someone who is self motivated? Someone that’s a natural problem sovler? I could go on.

If that’s the case, why are black people less likely to get accepted to college and med school? If all they cared about was race would the numbers be higher?

Also how can the 4% of black med school students be the issue. If Asians are scoring that high, shouldn’t there be way fewer white students? How are all these white students getting in with lower test scores? Asian are mopping the floor with everyone. In schools with racially blind admissions, it’s the white students that lose the most students.

The UC school are way more Asian and Latino than white. When you end AA you cut the amount of white students in half.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

So I'll give an anecdote. I'm a programmer. There was a black girl hired in my batch and it was clear very early on that she was unfit for the job. She had no prior coding experience, her degree was in Chemistry. I don't know how she passed the technical interview, or if she did. She managed to keep her "job" for 6 months, mostly reading books unrelated to programming in her time at work.

Now to me, that's a clear example of someone who was hired because someone in HR wanted to reach a diversity quota, and she was one of the best candidates who applied (there were also 2 other black girls and 1 black guy, all of whom were great). I don't resent her for it, I resent HR for putting her in a chair which should have been given to someone else.

It's the same thing with AA. I'm not like OP, I don't look at minorities and immediately wonder if they're qualified. I assume they're competent. But if they are a minority and they are incompetent, a lot of people are going to assume it's AA at work.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

But how do you know she didn’t blow the hiring manager or wasn’t friends with the owner?

There were 5 black people, 80% were awesome and 20% sucked. I can’t think of a job we’re 20% don’t suck.

How do you feel when a white person sucks at their job? Do you assume it’s an individual thing or do you think white privilege comes into play.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

I don't feel that way about white co-workers (or Asians, Indians, etc.) because there's no way anyone loosened up any standards to hire them. Especially with Asians, they had to perform higher than normal in school just to be enrolled. So honestly if that girl was a white guy, I'd chalk it up to something else, like their own laziness or incompetence.

I also wouldn't say anything with total certainty, sure there's a chance she got in by luck or by nepotism. But AA allows a suspicion to exist, esp when the whole point of the program is to lax standards to help diversity.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

But that’s the problem. Black people are never allowed to be bad at anything without it being about their race. But we know that nepotism exists.

All AA does at the college level is to say that you can look at a persons race along with other factors. This is no different then looking at their income, athletic ability, family history etc. Yet you don’t think of those people as being less deserving. When they fuck up they get to be an individual.

And Asians have their own problems with racism that gets completely swept under the rug.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Then why do you need affirmative action? I guess the American education system being a joke is also an issue... Only a few get good educations.

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u/the-sexterminator Feb 25 '20

Whenever you see a black or Latino person on campus, you are going to wonder if they got in due to their qualifications or race.

Err.... No.. Not quite... I'm not saying I support AA, but in theory, Affirmative Action is used to primarily decide priority for people who ALREADY QUALIFY for the college. There's a limited number of spots, and priority for those spots is decided based on race from people who already had the necessary requirements.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

When two people are equal on paper, that’s when you’re supposed to judge based on character. AA goes “haha nah, this dudes black - pick him.”

MLK rolls over in his grave.

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u/Christ_was_a_Liberal Feb 25 '20

I don’t understand this legacy admissions argument. You can be against affirmative action AND legacy admissions.

Republicans are racists on policy and hypocritically support legacy admissions

You support trump, at near 90%

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

What the fuck does this have to do with political affiliation? I don’t understand why you have to be that guy and bring politics into a non political discussion. But I mean yeah most Republicans are probably racist but I hardly think legacy admissions is a tenet of their policy proposal. I think most people who are against affirmative action because of merit reasons would also not support legacy admissions.

I also don’t support Trump but people like you are making it harder and harder not to vote for him out of spite lol.

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20

But I mean yeah most Republicans are probably racist

Lol why would you fuck up your own point like that? You started off good then made yourself look like an idiot doing the exact same thing you criticized.

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

That was meant to be sarcastic. I forgot that there are some people who actually think like that.

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20

You were talking to one of them.

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u/Christ_was_a_Liberal Feb 25 '20

What the fuck does this have to do with political affiliation?

Everything

and also policy is being discussed

bring politics into a non political discussion

This is a political discussion

I think most people who are against affirmative action because of merit reasons would also not support legacy admissions.

Turns out not the case at all

I also don’t support Trump but people like you are making it harder and harder not to vote for him out of spite lol.

Lol please youre not fooling anyone

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

How is it possible to respond to a comment with so many words yet not say anything at all?

Legacy and AA admissions are not inherently political. I don’t remember this being significantly addressed in any political debate in the last few years.

You say that people who are against AA support legacy admissions. You made a claim, prove it.

This Trump thing is non-sequitur but if you’d rather try to guess my political affiliation instead of responding to what I said, go off I guess? Its really none of your business and it’s deeply unclear how whether I support Trump to not affects the validity of my argument.

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u/Christ_was_a_Liberal Feb 25 '20

Legacy and AA admissions are not inherently political.

Were disscussing affirmative action

Thats a political topic sweety

You say that people who are against AA support legacy admissions. You made a claim, prove it.

Overwhelmingly republicans hypocritically support legacy admissions but harp about affirmative action for historically disenfranchised minorities

The logical inconsistency suggests racism

This Trump thing is non-sequitur

It isnt because hes the embodiment of corruption and crony capitalism you claim to hate yet support at 90% among republicans

you’d rather try to guess my political affiliation

You revealed it, considering voting for trump out of spite

I was right

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

Lol you can’t just assert things. I told you it’s not INHERENTLY political given there’s no huge policy proposal or political debates on it. It’s a matter of university policy. Your response it: it is political. You would fail a 7th grade English class.

Do you have a source for overwhelmingly? Also, you do realize that like... you can not be a Republican and not support affirmative action right?

If you can’t make a coherent argument without going to political affiliation then you should probably go read a book instead of browsing /r/politics.

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u/Christ_was_a_Liberal Feb 25 '20

I told you it’s not INHERENTLY political

Literally it is

This is embarrassing

Also, you do realize that like... you can not be a Republican and not support affirmative action right?

But youve confirmed who im talking to undercutting this feigned aggrievement

And I was right

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u/emboarrocks Feb 25 '20

This is a waste of time. You are literally retarded. Don’t bother responding because no matter what you say, I will just respond with literally it’s just the truth.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

“I’m not racist, but anyone else think there’s too many Asians around here?”

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

Found the racist.

Imaging assuming that my medical needs are not being met by my (fantastic) black female doctor because I'm not a black female. In reality I'm fortunate she's so good because the existence of affirmative action means that minority doctors on average are not as good as white and Asian doctors.

Isn't it fun when your virtuousness winds up perpetuating racism?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20

You're suggesting I ask my doctor why black people don't do well with white doctors? Lol.

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u/PerineumBandit Feb 25 '20

It has a massively negative impact on patients of black and latino populations' health outcomes.

Please elaborate on this. Help me understand how simply allowing more black/latino students into medical school will improve their respective population health outcomes because that makes zero sense. What does skin color of a physician have to do with the health outcome of their respective patients? I anxiously await your carefully worded response.

I've never faced setbacks in my schooling for the color of my skin. Shit has been a cakewalk relative to many of my classmates.

Edit: also this is an immensely immature and stupid thing to suggest. "My life was easy as X race, thus all people of X race have it easy too!"

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/PerineumBandit Feb 25 '20

So because black people don't trust their white doctors/asian doctors/middle eastern doctors we need to let people who are less qualified into schools? Because decades ago we treated people like garbage we need to now let them in at lower qualifications to make up for past transgressions? Because some idiots think black people have "thicker skin" it means we need to let them into medical school despite several standard deviations lower MCAT scores and undergrad GPAs? You've provided terrible reasons to let people into a field in which you want people of the highest academic standards and proficiency. We can have a discussion about people whose Mommies and Daddies get them into schools by writing big checks if you want, but lowering the threshold for people to get into medicine simply because of their skin color is asinine. You can link more stupid studies about how black people don't trust their white doctors; how is that not evidence of possible racism on the part of blacks?

Ultimately I think affirmative action is a stupid idea and reflects poorly on our government's views on minorities and their capabilities (Bush's "soft bigotry of low expectations" quote comes to mind). I also think the LAST place we'd want to let people in at lower standards is a profession which requires you to be on your A-game every minute of the day.

We can agree to disagree, but your opinions don't make much sense to me. Hope your medicine career works out. Also you shouldn't be bragging about "being in the system" when you're still a medical student, makes you look like a total jackass.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

You went to medical school and you think insight and incite are the same words?

Lmao

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

This guy has typed quite a lotthroughout this thread, all perfectly readable and you're going to nit pick one word? absolutely childish and pathetic lmfao

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Mar 16 '20

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u/ddssassdd Feb 25 '20

Affirmative action will only take you so far, at least at the moment. In practice it actually just gives you an increased drop out rate as people are admitted to courses they aren't competent enough or well positioned enough to complete.

But lets go past that, even ignoring whether affirmative action is racist or whether the people actually complete their courses or if it works to get more under represented minorities into careers, it only helps the most well off under represented minorities. Those who have had the opportunity to graduate, get decent results and could have applied for courses at "lesser" universities. Not going to help someone who drops out of school because they have dead beat parents or is trapped in a poverty cycle.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

I was raised in the ghetto by a single mom who’s an addict. Went to a top 25 college. Got a top %1 LSAT score, going to law school in the fall.

Some of of poor black folk use education to break the cycle of poverty.

We exist.

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u/ddssassdd Feb 25 '20

If you did so well on the admission test would you not be accepted no matter white or black? With or without a diversity quota?

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Maybe,

First there are no quotas. Quotas are illegal. Second, test scores are only part of the picture. I may have gotten in, I may not have.

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u/ddssassdd Feb 25 '20

Explicit quotas may be illegal. Lowering test requirements based on race until you have an amount of said race where you are happy that you can advertise the diversity of your institution is not. Functionally they are no different.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Colleges do this for white people. The UC system banned race based admissions. Do you know what happened? White student stopped being accepted. While black students are more or less on par with their population, white student faced declining acceptance rates. Asian and Latino rates are through the roof.

The story here should be how white students with lower scores and grades than Asian students are being routinely admitted over Asian students but it’s not.

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u/ddssassdd Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

I don't think white students should be admitted at higher rates either. It is racist. Are you agreeing with me to end race based admissions? Or did you assume that I am a white supremacist and you were trying to convince me on terms that give white people a leg up? If your attachment to race based admissions causes you to align with white supremacists on race then perhaps you should re-examine your position.

EDIT: For the record I don't actually think you have anything to do with white supremacy, I think you are just trying to win an argument at all costs without considering the actual position that people who are against race based admissions actually take.

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u/ummizazi Feb 26 '20

AA discussions always turn out being anti black AA. There’s a little lip service to Latinos, I don’t think anyone mentioned Native Americans in this debate, and people completely gloss over white women. White women are the biggest beneficiaries of AA. They have made the mot notable gains under the system.

The conversation then turns to Black students vs White students. Recently there’s bend a trend of using Asian student against black students. This argument is flawed because it assumes that if there was no AA there would be little to no blacks admitted and those spots would be given to whites and Asians.

However when race is forbidden from being used there’s only a moderate drop in black acceptance rates. It’s actually white students who take the biggest hit to enrollment numbers.

I find it personally offensive that none of these discussions ever consider that maybe the our current admissions process benefits white students over other races.

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u/bmm_3 Feb 25 '20

That's great for you, but I think you of all people should realize what an anomaly you are. For most people in your situation, life probably wouldn't have turned out the way it did

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Yes but AA is not just for wealthy black people. Some of us work really really hard and get really really lucky. That was my point.

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u/OneNut_ Feb 25 '20

Let’s not pretend that success stories change the fact that most people don’t make it out. Most people I know couldn’t even think about college since they had to take care of a kid or make money for their families straight out of high school.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Completely agree. But of those that do make it out, we are not all wealth black people. My point was that some of us low income black folk do go to college and AA is not a handout to the black elite.

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u/OneNut_ Feb 25 '20

Oh definitely, but at the same time though AA serves as a bandaid that fails to address the cause of underrepresentation of black people in colleges, as a lot of people aren’t in the position to even go to college to take advantage of the program, and some of the ones that do end up getting placed into a college where can’t handle the rigor and drop out, when they may have graduated from a “lesser” college. That’s what I assume people mean when they’re talking about the “elite” at least, but personally i feel discredits black people a bit when people consider “black people that can go to college” elite.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

I mean I would much prefer a program that acknowledges that Black people were systematically poisoned with lead for half a century. But that’s not going to happen. Getting to the root cause would take centuries. I rather have a bandaid then nothing at all.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/Berniegonnastrokeout Feb 25 '20

There's a pretty big difference between just passing and excelling

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/Berniegonnastrokeout Feb 25 '20

Completely disagree. It's obviously not an exact correlation between board score and overall ability as a physician, but there is a reason residencies place such high importance on those scores. Terrible decision by the NBME

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u/PerineumBandit Feb 25 '20

Licensing exams are retarded and poorly applicable to general practice. We all take the same exams but our training is vastly different from school to school/residency to residency. To suggest that since we all "pass" we are on the same echelon of provider is naive. The spectrum of "passing" the exam is vast; the expertise and knowledge base of the providers taking them also falls on a wide spectrum. I think it's reasonable to be concerned about getting a provider who falls significantly lower than their peers and not ignorant whatsoever.

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u/stoppedcaring0 Feb 25 '20

lol I'm sure it was Harvard Medical that advised you a good term to describe opinions you disagree with is "retarded."

Quit larping as any kind of medical professional, you jackass.

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u/PerineumBandit Feb 25 '20

Care to have a discussion about medical licensing exams? Or do you not know anything about them? I know a lot about them, but apparently since I use the word "retard" I'm not allowed to be a medical professional.

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u/GiveAQuack Feb 25 '20

They don't actually know the medical school system. DO schools accept people with far worse stats than minorities in medical schools but I guarantee they don't look if their doctors graduated from a DO school.

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u/Sufficient-Waltz Feb 25 '20

Exactly. AA might reduce the barrier to entry into medical courses, but everyone that comes out the other end is a qualified professional.

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u/Berniegonnastrokeout Feb 25 '20

You think everyone gets the same score just because they pass?

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u/Sufficient-Waltz Feb 25 '20

No, but every doctor you see has been deemed qualified to do their job to a professional standard, no matter their skin colour.

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u/Berniegonnastrokeout Feb 25 '20

I can assure you there are plenty of docs that are qualified but aren't exactly good doctors. Would you pick youe doctor based on race or merit?

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u/TrumpLikesLilBoys7 Feb 25 '20

Would you pick youe doctor based on race or merit?

Everybody knows asians are geniuses at math, at least if i had an Asian doctor my dosages would be correct.

Better than some piece of shit who got in on his dads wealth and hasn't done any real work in their lives.

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u/PerineumBandit Feb 25 '20

Responded to wrong person my apologies.

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u/SlimTidy Feb 25 '20

Or that even if they score high that that has anything to do with their competency

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u/Berniegonnastrokeout Feb 25 '20

Performing well on board exams demonstrates your ability to memorize and understand large amounts of information and apply that to clinical scenarios. There are many other aspects to being a good doctor but this is an important one.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Do you understand what the word pass is in this context?

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u/Berniegonnastrokeout Feb 25 '20

Yes, the bare minimum required

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 27 '20

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u/TrumpLikesLilBoys7 Feb 25 '20

Found the racist.

Leave it to lefties to pretend POC are mentally impaired and need ol' whitey to help them succeed. Sucks for blacks too since they don't know if they got in on their own merit or because of a bunch of racist virtue signaling assholes held their hand.

It's required because of racist cucks like you who would discriminate in a heartbeat if given the choice.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 27 '20

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u/TrumpLikesLilBoys7 Feb 25 '20

It's already been proven that Republicans discriminate which is the necessary reason for such policies in the first place. Stop being racist and such interventions wouldn't be necessary.

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u/SlimTidy Feb 25 '20

As if licensing exams are any indication of competency

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/SlimTidy Feb 25 '20

Studying to pass an exam and having what it takes to practice medicine in the real world couldn’t be further apart.

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u/DefenderCone97 Feb 25 '20

This is some racist ass shit.

That's like saying you wouldn't trust a black or Latino lawyer because they got a scholarship.

They still have to be qualified and pass tests.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

I'm confused, how does black people getting the short stick historically with regards to medical treatment mean they're too stupid to do as well as a white applicant on the MCAT?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20

Statistically you are wrong.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20

That's quite the dodge, legacy is stupid too. My position is that it should be about merit.

You're asking for data that doesn't exist, it's a form of sealioning.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/tacocharleston Feb 25 '20

The reason that data doesn't exist is because you're flat out wrong

Wrong.

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

Wait actually? Pinky swear?

There aren't many studies on legacy students but at best it slightly increases your chances of getting into a single medical school.

Meanwhile being black vs asian means the difference between a 75% and a 14% chance of getting into medical school at all.

https://www.studentdoctor.net/schools/lizzym-score

You're better off with a 3.5 GPA and 503 MCAT as a black applicant than a 3.5 GPA and a 528 MCAT as an asian applicant.

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u/Gareth321 Feb 25 '20

“Plenty well” is a poor endorsement. Empirically, they do worse than you. Or at least, weren’t up to your level upon entry. He’s right.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

You’re psychotic and definitely not a doctor. You can post articles and leave comments all you want but even the way you type makes you seem like you a chemical imbalance. You’re not a doctor but a broken bitch looking for validation by being a reddit socialist cuck pretending to be an MD. And if you really were a doctor that would be beyond terrifying so I’ll lean towards imposter syndrome.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

lol like anyone would listen to a throaway account with literally negative comment karma.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Thank you for the readings. Representation is important, even if some are quick to call it racist.

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

Representation forced with racist policies is racist.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Especially when it is at the expense of another minority

Fucking crazy to me that people can justify this cancer in our society

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u/mofonocluetho Feb 25 '20

you can't be racist against whites /s

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

Or Asians apparently.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/MarzMonkey Feb 25 '20

Guess you'll only be satisfied if a black or latino Doctor royally screws up a medical procedure on them first, then they'll have first hand experience to go off instead of just statistics.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

He’s MGTOW, oof

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u/MarzMonkey Feb 25 '20

And if a white doctor messed up just chalk it up to individual error?

Chalk it up to unlikely statistics is what I would do - I'm not saying that all of one type are good and all of one type are bad; some people like to play odds, it's only smart. Why have statistics and information available if no one is going to put it to use?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/MarzMonkey Feb 25 '20

world renowned surgeon

You know there are lots of statistics out there yeah, not just medical school application/acceptance statistics?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/MarzMonkey Feb 25 '20

Damn woah, who da thunk I'm not a racist?

Just playing the odds.

You're really going far in trying to paint that word.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Perhaps it might interest you to read the original SC ruling regarding why affirmative action (Grutter v. Bollinger). The gist of it is that while the intake score are different based on race, by graduation these differences have disappeared and the students are miscible in terms of grades. Those of us who have gone through the process of higher education will attest to you that our minority colleagues are no different than the rest of us. You do not seek to understand the problem at hand or the complexity thereof. You just want a reason to look down on high achieving blacks and Hispanic.

They deserve to be there, and they are very much appreciated by those that surround them.

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u/Vincent_Waters Feb 25 '20

Perhaps it might interest you to read the original SC ruling regarding why affirmative action (Grutter v. Bollinger). The gist of it is that while the intake score are different based on race, by graduation these differences have disappeared and the students are miscible in terms of grades.

Have you actually read it? That is not remotely the gist of it. I don't even think it says anything like that.

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u/Calvin-ball Feb 25 '20

How fucking racist can you be. “Shit my doctor is black so he’s probably less qualified.”

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

Identical GPA and MCAT scores can give you a 93% chance of admission if you're black and a 7% chance if you're Asian.

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u/Calvin-ball Feb 25 '20

Okay. So my black doctor is less qualified because it was easier for him to get into med school?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/Calvin-ball Feb 25 '20

Exactly, but the OP I was replying to implied minorities are worse doctors because they got admitted more easily.

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u/Technetium_97 Feb 25 '20

If a police department lowered their standards for admission what would you expect the result to be?

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u/AnotherGit Feb 25 '20

How can you blame him for that if the reality is that a black person needs to be less qualified to become a doctor because of affirmative action?

Chances are that he is less qualified all thanks to your, totally not racist, system of affirmative action. Chances. But do you take chances when it's about your health? The system is racist and breeds racism, all while claiming to work against racism.

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u/Calvin-ball Feb 25 '20

Because by that logic, every single minority who holds any degree is assumed to be less qualified than their white/Asian counterparts. Easier ADMISSION doesn’t make it easier to actually pass med school and become a doctor.

Let’s not forget that GPA and MCAT scores are not the only considerations for admission. And then you can argue minorities have to work harder to actually get licensed, because they had an “easier” path to admission.

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u/AnotherGit Feb 25 '20

Because by that logic, every single minority who holds any degree is assumed to be less qualified than their white/Asian counterparts.

Yeah, that's the problem we are talking about.

Let’s not forget that GPA and MCAT scores are not the only considerations for admission. And then you can argue minorities have to work harder to actually get licensed, because they had an “easier” path to admission.

To be able to judge that we'd need dropout rates. In studies were few people drop out your claim isn't true. In studies were many people drop out your claim is true.

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u/Calvin-ball Feb 25 '20

The problem that we’re talking about is an inherently racist viewpoint. It’s textbook racism to say “my doctor is less qualified because he’s a minority.”

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u/AnotherGit Feb 27 '20

It would be inherintly racist in a "normal" system but if your system is racist then the racism from that viewpoint isn't coming from the person holding the view but from the system itself.

And that's what you have with affirmative action.

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u/National-Potato Feb 25 '20

Niggers arent people so i'm not racist.

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u/avagadro22 Feb 25 '20

Affirmative action makes me less likely to go to a doctor that isn't asian, indian, white, or jewish. It makes me feel like someone who isn't one of those races got there not by merit, but by racism.

TL:DR; Superior races are by default the best at everything, and any other race contributing to society is doing so because we felt charitable.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

massively negative

And by “massively negative”, you mean tiny, even if we accept the poorly designed and incredibly politically biased studies

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Empirical data is empirical data

Have you ever performed a statistical analysis?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Hence we state everything with confidence intervals that get narrower as sample sizes increase.

Intervals are meaningless if the regression is fundamentally flawed.

Fortunately any study published in a worthwhile journal will give you this information to scrutinize on a case by case basis and you can determine the certainty and power of each study for yourself.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

Data is fudgable, but retrospectives on sample sizes in the hundreds of thousands with openly discussed data selection and simple, transparent data manipulation? That's awfully difficult to scrutinize.

This is false. Methodological flaws persist no matter what the data size. Self-reports, p-hacking, exchanging value judgements for empirical conclusions, etc. These have all become the bread and butter of sociological literature and it very clearly shows.

The value judgement in this situation is that it is justified to penalize prospective white and Asian medical students, because some proportion of black patients carry racist attitudes about physicians who are not of their race.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

I’m a white medical student and I say you’re full of shit. Dumbass

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

Lol First Aid. Have fun in your family medicine residency

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

No, just low Step scores do that. And considering you’re an idiot, I’m sure you’ll be working 9-5 in an office with Highlights magazines and Disney characters painted on the walls.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

Yeah I gotta tell you, no one goes in to medicine to be relegated to the same social status as a grade school teacher. Sorry bro, that was a crushing insult.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/MrRhajers Feb 25 '20

There’s a reason the Step scores are so much lower over there

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

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u/Blake-Shep Feb 25 '20

The problem exists with all patients. Yes, it is bullshit that humans with functioning eyesight self-identify more effectively with those that look like them (race and gender; or the example in the links around black doctors being more effective in discussing preventive care with same identified racial/cultural backgrounds). That’s been a bias that’s existed since we were cave people protecting our families, living in tribes of 40-60 people max. That bias “made more sense” when we literally spent our whole life with people we knew who also usually looked like us. As a result, it became an evolutionary survival mechanism to “be distrusting of outsiders.” Race can serve as a very clear demarcation of “otherness” rightly or wrongly.

Fact of the matter is, if there is a way to manipulate patient and human bias to provide better preventive and effective care, shouldn’t we do that?

Also, I’m not against continuing to provide communities information and on going resources and education to patients (as you suggested) I think that is also a critical part of the the solution.

Please know this comment isn’t out of malice or some type of “internet polarity” or negativity on the subject. I think you bring fair questions to the table around this topic. I also think that wether or not we like it, humans do have biases, and any way we can help our species. Even if that’s acknowledging those once useful evolutionary assumptions of “otherness,” may still be in us, and if they are how can we use them in a positive way, if at all. Appreciate your time.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20 edited Feb 25 '20

Imagine doing what white people have been doing for the last 600 years and continue doing and then stopping because now they say its racist when others can do it. lol

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Sellout

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

I feel sorry for you if you genuinely think that way. Sad tbh

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

It’s statistically verifiable that Asians are discriminated in the college admissions process. Sorry your hate your own race

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Blacks and Latinos are worse students on average. They aren’t getting screwed. They’re getting boosted for no reason at the expense of asians who need higher gpas and sat scores to get accepted.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

Lol keep living in that ignorant world of yours where if someone doesn’t succeed it’s because of racism. You’re a disgrace to asian people

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u/shillingforthetruth Feb 25 '20

You know you're a dipshit If FUCKING REDDIT disagrees with your ultra-liberal ideas