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<p>Since he used less effective approaches to do it, Herbert Hoover didn’t exactly ignore the Great Depression by not using active government intervention. The effect, though, was equivalent. </p>
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<p>I’d like to use examples from my own life. Because of my race, I was continually pressured by parents, other family and friends throughout my youth to not study or read books and instead focus my attention on basketball and other idols of black culture. No tiger parents in my midst, no. I got teased by people who looked like me and were declared to be on my side rather than encouraged, respected or simply let-be for doing well in school and ‘acting white’. I didn’t have access to the same information that gets thrown by associates to students in more richly informed and so socially aware social circles that my being black created a barrier to entering. </p>
<p>There are so few black role models in politics, business and science compared to those present in the much more represented entertainment and sports. This might seem like small change to you — why not have a role model in a different race? But part of what makes a role model so inspiring is his/her ability to evoke the idea in a young person that, “Someone like me can do that; I can, too”. Petty things like these don’t have as much influence when we are teens or adults who think for themselves, but as children, we are incredibly influenced by the role models available to us and the culture our friends and family instills in us. </p>
<p>Because of slavery, and then black codes, and then Jim Crow laws, and then simple stereotype-driven social estrangement, because of centuries without access to education, a cultural heritage not marred by servitude or even sufficient economic resources, my culture is screwed up, man. I can only wonder how many intelligent black young people have given up or ignored their potential to be great because of the social and cultural capital that they were endowed with, that White America has, until recently and still occasionally, been actively, purposefully working to corrode.</p>
<p>African americans aren’t limping behind because of their own foibles, as the phenomenon of first-gen african immigrants taking advantage of their preferences indicates. If you can explain without reference to racism why only affirmative action enables them to even near proportional representation in our colleges, seeing you do so would profoundly affect my attitude about affirmative action.</p>
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<p>The argument that affirmative action is “unfair” suggests that without such programs, everyone, including women and people of color, would be treated equally. Not even the most optimistic – or misguided – observer of our nation’s history or contemporary society could make that claim in good faith.</p>
<p>The National Urban Institute recently sent equally qualified pairs of job applicants on a series of interviews for entry-level jobs. The young men were coached to display similar levels of enthusiasm and “articulateness.” The young white men received 45% more job offers than their African American co-testers; whites were offered the job 52% more often than Latino “applicants.”</p>
<p>Another recent study showed that job applicants with “white-sounding names” were twice as likely to be called back for interviews as applicants with “black-sounding names” who had the same qualifications. Another study found that a white job applicant with a criminal record was more likely to receive a second interview than a similarly qualified African American applicant with no criminal record. </p>
<p>More basically, since whites define our society’s standards of beauty (see okcupid’s races and dating study, Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, wherever), they reap the profound benefits of being the “most beautiful” race. You may not know the profound advantages that come with beauty beyond the dating scene as a result of the halo effect, but I’m getting bored with this post and you can google it. </p>
<p>Another website, Implicit.harvard.edu will provide you an online test to expose your implicit bias against blacks and for whites or/and report to you its finding that most Americans of all races have this bias. Once you finish with the test you can try to argue to me that this doesn’t lead to behavior racially preferential toward whites. I’ll be waiting.</p>
<p>White guys love to play the victim. But in reality, they’ll always have their racial preferences.</p>