<p>Personally, Snorlaz, I support Affirmative Action, so I must respectfully disagree with you on the subject. I support it on the basis of class and not on race, however. In any case, blacks and other minorities would still benefit from it.</p>
<p>You contend that black cultural attitudes are the primary causes of their failure to achieve in school, but I think you aren’t pointing out the cause, but a symptom of a larger one: poverty. I say this because this cultural attitude isn’t typically cited as a cause for hispanic failure to achieve in higher education and yet they are only marginally more successful than their African-American counterparts. What both groups have in common is that they are disproportionately impacted by the forces of poverty.</p>
<p>Poverty genuinely makes it harder to do well in school, especially when the schools you go to are underfunded, offer few, if any AP classes, and are generally not conducive to learning and the academic experience overall as they should be.Also, did you know that living in poverty actually makes you less intelligent? New research has shown that it does, which obviously makes it more challenging to do well in school. I’m not saying that the cultural disdain for educational achievement present in some elements of black culture isn’t a problem. I’m just saying that it isn’t the root problem. It’s a symptom.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, I took a general psychology class last year and this subject came up. My professor gave a fascinating mini-lecture on why this attitude you mention and related things exist in minority cultures. I forgot the details of what he said, but he essentially boiled it down to the fact that crushing poverty experienced by these people brings about a sense of hopelessness so powerful that they feel discouraged from even trying to better their situation through school. I’m not sure if I got all of that right, but it seems to make sense to some degree. Institutionalized racism also plays a role in perpetuating this poverty. Affirmative action is just a step in the right direction in my opinion, but it’s not enough. </p>
<p>Personally, since I view Affirmative Action as an attempt to rectify some aspects of institutionalized racism, I can’t say that it’s discriminatory. At least, it’s not any more discriminatory than an admissions process that doesn’t use Affirmative Action. Moreover, the benefits of AA strongly outweigh the costs to non-minority students to the best of my knowledge. But if you oppose AA, then I think it would be prudent of you to at least recognize that institutionalized racism exists and puts most minorities at a distinct disadvantage. I think it’d also be prudent to oppose this kind of racism and support politicians who seek to disband it. If it’s disbanded, AA would no longer be necessary. Until then, AA will be necessary to make the admissions process a level playing field. Feel free to disagree, but that’s just my take on it.</p>