Equal Opportunity for Minorities Options

[DoubleJ]

I am sure a topic like this already exists, but I really don't give a f**k. I will layout the background of the story for you and then the question.

So I am on a forum at my other forum site and I am really shocked at what I am reading. In the northeastern states, they have a practice of hiring more minorities because they have a quota to fill. Nowhere does it exist more than in my state of New Jersey. They actually have a law, that says that fire departments have to hire a certain amount of minorities every year. My beef is that there are alot of whites who feel as though the law is stupid because it can take a white guy who is very qualified and put him behind a black or hispanic guy who is less qualified like me. People are really upset over this because they think that minorities should not get special treatment just because they are minorities. They feel as though they should have to go through the same type of treatment that the whites should. Some think that it is an unfair system and should be changed. Others, like me, think that it is fair especially when the white guys who don't live in the city come in and steal jobs. I guess my question would be this, do you guys think that it is fair for not only state employers, but employers in general to hire minorities over whites even if they are less qualified?

[brooklyneast05]

tough topic. i used to show a bit more sympathy towards it but i'm fully over that now. i'm against affirmative action. i agree with others who have said economic class is more of an issue than race.

reducing poverty and improving education will improve it all. lower class people need to have access to the same opportunities and education from the start. we can't be unequal for the first 18 years, and then somehow try to balance that unfairness out by lowering the standards for their entrance to college. that's setting them up for failure. not to mention like others have said, the smart well off minorities are just using it to their advantage. as a whole it's not improving anything.

i think affirmative action has outworn it's welcome. i think it certainly was needed 20 or 30 years ago to get a foot in the door for minorities so they would have the chance to prove themselves. today? not so much.

yeah there is still racism and discrimination but i don't believe this fixes it at all. all it does is lower the standards so minorities can continue to drag their feet and hang around with their continuous low standards. at some point or another we have to get over it and stand on our own two feet.

i'm gonna talk about blacks because obviously i think i have a better grasp of that community.

as oppressive as the white community may be at times, i've never found it to be near as oppressive to me as the black community. that's were i think the root of the problem is in the first place. i can't count the number of times in high school i was ridiculed by other black kids for participating in class, doing my homework, reading books, or taking upper level courses like physics and calculus. when you work hard and strive to be educated in the black community, many times you don't get praised for it, you get put down and told to stop acting white. this isn't just me, it's happened to a lot of people i know. i think there's a big problem when the message you're getting from your community is that you need to act more dumb than you really are to be accepted. i think that goes back to what nate was saying about curing a symptom and not the disease.

i don't think it's the white people who are saying we aren't good enough. i think it's the minority leaders who defend affirmative action and tell us we need it.

my family is plenty well off and i'm a smart enough guy. i don't need affirmative action to get into school or get a job. i'm in a better position for those things than the majority of white people i know. also, i want my achievements to be 100% my achievements. i don't want it to be 75% my achievement and 25% the preferential treatment that i got because i happen to be black.

i think affirmative action is condescending and pretty insulting to everyone's hard work.

although i disagree with it in regards to race, i'm still somewhat torn when it comes to gender. i think that's a bigger and sort of different problem. i'm pretty sure i have a better chance at getting hired at a lot of places than a woman of any race.

[DoubleJ]

as oppressive as the white community may be at times, i've never found it to be near as oppressive to me as the black community. that's were i think the root of the problem is in the first place. i can't count the number of times in high school i was ridiculed by other black kids for participating in class, doing my homework, reading books, or taking upper level courses like physics and calculus. when you work hard and strive to be educated in the black community, many times you don't get praised for it, you get put down and told to stop acting white. this isn't just me, it's happened to a lot of people i know. i think there's a big problem when the message you're getting from your community is that you need to act more dumb than you really are to be accepted. i think that goes back to what nate was saying about curing a symptom and not the disease.

i don't think it's the white people who are saying we aren't good enough. i think it's the minority leaders who defend affirmative action and tell us we need it.

my family is plenty well off and i'm a smart enough guy. i don't need affirmative action to get into school or get a job. i'm in a better position for those things than the majority of white people i know. also, i want my achievements to be 100% my achievements. i don't want it to be 75% my achievement and 25% the preferential treatment that i got because i happen to be black.

i think affirmative action is condescending and pretty insulting to everyone's hard work.

Another post that I can agree with. I don't want people to think that oh I am going to use affirmative action to my advantage to get the career I want, because that is totally untrue. Unfortunately in the line of work that I am pursuing, they force affirmative action on you whether you are qualified or not. I do think that it makes other blacks look bad, when you see some black people busting their ass to get to where they are, and others who just lay back and can get the same benefits.

I too am that person who is constantly told to stop acting white and to stop trying to be an overachiever, but I can't help it. Since I was young, my family instilled values in me that I carry with me to this day. My mom could have always moved out of our old neighborhood into something nicer, but she wanted me to see that I needed to do more than just my best to get out of where I was at. The experience showed me that I cannot settle for just average or expect a handout like most people do, but that I must work hard to get what I want, and even then it is still not enough.

Most people feel as though blacks take advantage of this system the same way they take advantage of the welfare system, but I for one am against those who want to abuse it all together. If people can't put in the hard work and dedication that it takes to be successful, then they shouldn't be given the same opportunities as those who do.

Being black in this world is hard enough, but being a black man to me is the toughest job that anybody can have. I am proud that I don't fall into the cliche that is associated with most black men. If somebody calls me an oreo or an uncle tom, it definitely doesn't bother me, because I know that I am doing my best to make sure that I don't fall into what society wants me to be.

Black leaders in today's society don't have the same message as Dr. King or Malcolm X did. It seems like all they want in today's world, is for blacks to get over easy, and even when they do, and they are ridiculed, these same leaders are the ones crying foul or racism and what not. The level of hypocrisy in the black community is at an all time high, but trust when I say, there are definitely some blacks who strive to knock down the stereotypes and be something in this world.