Why YSK: because what seems like equal situation from surface isn’t always equal opportunity for all. And even when equal measure of help is provided, it might not be equally useful.

  • @DarthBueller@lemmy.world
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    011 months ago

    What is the justice of a rich black valley girl from Santa Barbara (who was always going to be college-bound) getting a free ride because of her skin color despite ZERO financial need, and a poor white yokel kid from rural Alabama not going to school because she can’t afford to (who also gets zero social support for going to college because her culture decided to intentionally devalue education as being “liberal elite”)?

    The fact that racism is a problem and that “the talk” is still a reality doesn’t justify race-based preferential treatment. No wonder culture wars are so easy to wage.

    • phillaholic
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      111 months ago

      Can you link me to a source so I can review the details of that case?

      • @DarthBueller@lemmy.world
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        111 months ago

        The source is me. One of my roommates was from Santa Barbara and enjoyed a free ride to a out-of-state public school based on her race. She reeked of money and privilege and had no business getting a free ride.

        • phillaholic
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          111 months ago

          So every minority that wanted to attended that school got a scholarship then? Presumably a worse off minority should have taken the slot. Your missing a lot of vital context.

          • @DarthBueller@lemmy.world
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            111 months ago

            Fair enough. I’m not singleminded about this, but it certainly raised my hackles hearing her go on and on in her valley girl meets prep school accent about how hard it was to be her, while she meanwhile had every privilege available to her,flew anywhere she wanted on a whim, and drove around a paid-for new Lexus SUV that her daddy gave her. I don’t know what justice should look like, but giving her a free ride sure as hell wasn’t it.

            • phillaholic
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              111 months ago

              There are always going to be individuals that don’t deserve things. Across the entire population however, these systems work and well. For all we know she was in massive debt. I know throughout my twenties some of my peers would have new cars constantly and buy expensive things they didn’t need and most of the time I found out they had $10k+ on credit cards and were living paycheck to paycheck with no savings or investments.

              It’s important to keep in mind that these systems are seeking to correct the long standing discrimination faced by people of color that were unable to obtain these things for no other reason than the color of their skin. They weren’t given access to capital despite being just as qualified as anyone else. They weren’t allowed to attend most colleges. Movies like Hidden Figures and the Banker, although dramatized, paint a picture of what needed to be corrected. As modern society chips away at these safeguards, it remains to be seen if we slip back into those patterns.

              • @DarthBueller@lemmy.world
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                111 months ago

                She wasn’t in debt. It was family money in great abundance. Yet she deserves a hand on the scale because of her skin color? I’d rather see a just and effective social state for everyone instead of selective handouts in a broken system that effectively reifies race and othering. Does recognizing the harm of systemic racism require reinforcing the concept? We talk about race as a harmful social construct and yet push for reparatory systems that amplify and reinforce it.

                • phillaholic
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                  111 months ago

                  Depends where the money came from. If he parents had it, she would have been disqualified from paying Nicole based scholarships. If her grandparents had it and not her parents, it wouldn’t have been known.

                  My point still stands. If the scholarship was solely based on the color of her skin, there must have been someone of the same race with more need that could have qualified. There had to be other merit attached to it.

                  If all things equal a black person got into college instead of a white person, then congratulations, you’ve experienced a little bit of what black people have gone through since the beginning of the nation in not just higher education, but jobs, housing, dealing with the police, etc.

                  It would be great if the problem could be solved without uneven rules. You’ll find it unrealistic to accomplish once learn how much is involved. You’re not asking to solve one problem, but dozens. Dozens of huge issues each with smaller sub-issues that could take you a lifetime to correct. Forcibly correcting it through affirmative action actually worked, and wouldn’t take generations.

    • @jtk
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      111 months ago

      Culture wars are easy to wage because of childish assholes that can’t handle seeing someone else receiving aid. Poor white yokel kids from rural Alabama problems stem from their parents voting for shit people that want them to be poor and uneducated. Then they grow up to vote for the same breed of shit people, against the aid (education, fair labor laws, safety regulations, etc) everyone else is trying to give them. They dig their own graves, over and over. Minorities are born into a grave, they’re trying to crawl out of it and a ridiculous amount of assholes are, not only not lending a hand, they’re attacking anyone that tries. Affirmative action doesn’t work perfectly but only because it gets abused by those same assholes.