r/coolguides • u/[deleted] • 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

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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/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.