<p>not even close…at least for michigan. also intercity is not the only place where there are crappy school districts, many rural districts perform very poorly. there are more white kids than black kids that have a crappy schooling in michigan so why are those kids not helped?</p>
<p>^ They are helped.</p>
<p>not under AA. they are helped through the holistic process, but minorities get that help twice(being a minority(except if you are asian) and then coming from a crappy background).</p>
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<p>I like your example. Let me give you mine… </p>
<p>I grew up in an upper middle class environment though my parents were military. I went to an all boys, Catholic, private, prep school in Texas. I was also the only black student out of 750. I also experienced very real and very serious racism. </p>
<p>[ul]Physical beatings…[/ul]
[ul]Verbal and Emotional Abuse[/ul]
[ul]Harassment by police[/ul]
[ul]Various nooses and pictures of burning crosses put on my locker[/ul]
[ul]Once was arrested, after being, jumped by 3 members of the majority. Only the fact that it was videotaped (school had cameras) saved me form “justice.” Not one student spoke out though many witnessed the attack.[/ul]</p>
<p>My grades suffered. My behavior turned atrocious. I scored a 900 on the old SAT. I was admitted to Texas A&M, UT Austin, Berkeley and Humboldt State University (Only colleges I applied to). Pretty sure I beat out many “more qualified” applicants. </p>
<p>After graduation I chose NOT to go to college since my school experience was “colorful.” I joined the military and became a linguist. In the course of a year I became fluent in 4 foreign languages. 3 more since that time. After the military I entered nursing. Now I am in an undergrad engineering program. 4.0 average. Am at the top of a competition for a pretty awesome research internship. </p>
<p>Are you telling me that had I instead gone to college that it would have been a disservice to you or anyone else in the majority??? </p>
<p>Do you really think YOUR situation compares to mine??? </p>
<p>That is why AA will never be overturned and why the majority will never understand it.</p>
<p>What disadvantage did you have? That you were poor? Pfft… </p>
<p>You think being upper middle class helped me at all??? I would have traded my left arm to be poor and white any day… Any discrimination you think you have felt, or even any racism you HAVE felt pales in comparison to most minorities.</p>
<p>That’s why AA was created. The only thing we seem to agree on is that it’s no good when people look at race. I’ll compromise… When Americans stop looking at race I’ll stand up with you and help dismantle AA. Until then it seems you are out of luck…</p>
<p>^ What he said.</p>
<p>Sup guys, I want to be judged based on the color of my skin. Its only fair. After all, who you are is only skin-deep.</p>
<p>From my school, about 150 kids (out of about 480) graduated with honors. I went to a public school in one of the safest cities in Michigan. It is a great family orientated city. It is also very boring. My school has plenty of AP classes, sends numerous students to Michigan, and had 5 National Merit Finalists this year.<br>
Out of the 67 Summa Cum Laude students (3.95 or above), none of them were black.
Maybe 1 of the 30 Magna Cum Laudes (3.75-.94) was black
Out of the Cum Laudes (3.50-3.74), I only know for sure that one of them is black.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Most of the black kids in my grade did not graduate with honors. How are the black kids in my school in a worse off position than the whites and Asians? Last time I checked, they are allowed to study, take AP classes, pay attention in class, ask for help from the teachers, etc. Whether or not they choose to do any of the above is their fault.</p>
<p>At my Campus day, I spent the majority of it talking to a black student. He was a nice, very intelligent young man. He took lots of AP classes, got mostly A’s, etc. (his school seemed quite good). If he can do it, then others in his kind of environment can as well.</p>
<p>^^ Try looking at other factors beside money. Why DO black kids historically under perform???</p>
<p>I love the "“If I can make it so can others” fallacy.</p>
<p>Some women are raped and recover from it. Since they can shouldn’t ALL recover from it? Many don’t.</p>
<p>Most Native Americans fell hard after what happened here. There was alcoholism and self destructive behavior. BUT Some didn’t succomb so all of them should have been successful…</p>
<p>There are some schizophrenics that live relatively normal lives WITHOUT medicine. Since they did it all of them should be able to.</p>
<p>Some black kids turn out like Michael Jordan. I should have been able to.</p>
<p>I hope you get what I’m telling you…</p>
<p>@xSlacker this is just a question that in no way should take away from your horrible experience that i am sure no sensible american would ever put you through. </p>
<p>why didn’t you pursue legal action?</p>
<p>also you would probably still gotten into those colleges through the holistic process because of what you went through, disregarding your race. a lot of people get a boost through AA because of their race, not because they were discriminated against because of their race. do you see my point? i am against people who have never had discrimination getting a boost because of assumed discrimination. your case, however, is different and would be treated differently by adcoms in college offices. btw, where are you going to school? Is it Cal?</p>
<p>also those other factors can be taken into account in admissions. but other racial groups also have those problems in certain factions and those kids should receive the benefits also</p>
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<p>Fair enough. You go find ONE black or Hispanic kid and ask them if they’ve NEVER endured racism. </p>
<p>Just find one and I’ll concede the point.</p>
<p>mjmay - They do. In fact, that’s why all minorities are considered URMs unless they aren’t under represented. My parents DID pursue legal action. They received a settlement from the school which ended up being free tuition ~40k… Money doesn’t solve the problem though…</p>
<p>“How would you feel if you grew up in a country where your race/gender defined you. Where people, corporations and institutions get away with blatant racism. Where you ALWAYS have to defend yourself or prove that you earned your way to where you are.”</p>
<p>Everyone is to some degree defined by his or her race/ethnicity and gender. As I mentioned earlier, affirmative action makes you look bad. It says “you cannot do it on your own. You need us to help you.” Affirmative action causes people to question your accomplishments, which results in you having to defend yourself. Plenty of recipients also question their accomplishments due to affirmative action. There are white people whoe are the recipients of actions based on blantant racism.</p>
<p>You guys make it sound like only black people get help from AA. Hispanics, Native Americans, some Asians(Cambodians, Viets, Thais) get help too.</p>
<p>^^i have been jumped and beaten up because of my religion. i have been discriminated against. its not just black people. i have also been jumped, because i was white, by black people. do not act like minorities do not discriminate also</p>
<p>xSlacker, I’m sorry for what you had to go through and I’m glad that you were able to make achieve great accomplishments. However, people of a majority can have similar terrible experiences as well. Yet, do they get the same benefits of affirmative action?</p>
<p>@xSlacker why did you take a settlement if in fact you wanted to instate change? a settlement does nothing without the policy changes and public outcry</p>
<p>do not take anything i say about this to be demeaning or anything of the sort. i am just curious why you did what you did</p>
<p>^^ The difference is most of their terrible experiences aren’t because of race.</p>
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<p>Do you think we care if “it makes us look bad?” The only people that discriminated against us were racist and the only ones tat would ASSUME we made it only because of AA are no better…</p>
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<p>I realize many people get helped by AA but I am not Asian or female or whatnot and cannot relate to their experience…</p>
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<p>1) You miss the point entirely. Who cares if you were beat up. Everyone gets beat up. Not everyone has endured systemic discrimination by a country, it’s government and it’s people for the larger part of it’s history. </p>
<p>2) Who said black people can’t be racist? There is, however, no SYSTEMIC or institutional racism directed your way…</p>
<p>^^what does that matter? a terrible horrible experience is the same no matter who the person is. also, gay people today are probably the most discriminated minority in america yet i see no AA for them. race isn’t a determining factor is 95% of peoples circumstances so i see no need for it to be the only part of AA.</p>
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<p>mmjay - I was a high school student… My parents made that decision.</p>
<p>I also have no problem with other groups being added to AA as I’ve stated before. I’m only against those that wish to eliminate it altogether…</p>