<p>@Snorlaz</p>
<p>I see your point. I think we agree more than we disagree on the matter, so I think there isn’t much more to be discussed. One last thing, though: I don’t think other applicants are a part of this <em>institutionalized racism.</em> Rather, it’s society itself and many of the institutions in it, such as the courts, police departments, public schools and the elementary, middle, and high school level, and the like. Actually, the University of California is doing everything in its power to get more minority students. In fact, I bet they’re circumventing prop 209 anyway they can, especially UCLA.</p>
<p>@repo11</p>
<p>lol, the “black community” argument is somewhat oversimplifying. You have to ask yourself <em>why</em> this attitude in the black community exists. Is it because blacks are<em>inherently</em> disdainful of education? I don’t think so. It’s connected to poverty and the effect it has on them.</p>
<p>Look, repo11. I’m black. Let’s get that fact out of the way. I live in a predominantly black neighborhood. It’s a pretty poor neighborhood. I made a lot of friends there and am still friends with them to this day, but they’ve always made fun of me(In a lighthearted manner. It was never malicious) because I don’t talk like a typical black person. I never spoke in ebonics and always did well in school(Well, in understanding concepts taught in school, anyway. I always did well in standardized testing but not in my classes because I was lazy). The reason they and other black people like them don’t especially value school much(I’d say they value it more than some poor black folks. They’ve graduated from high school and go to college just as I do) is that it doesn’t immediately rectify their impoverished situation. This is why drug dealing and usage disproportionately affect minority communities. It’s seen as a form of escapism and is thought to immediately mitigate the harsh conditions in which they live.</p>
<p>In regards to your claims about lots of poor Asian students getting accepted to UCLA, I’d say that that is probably not true since the average Asian family makes more money than the average White family according to this U.S. Census Bureau document from 2008-2009, page 9: <a href=“http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p20-560.pdf[/url]”>http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p20-560.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you took a random sample of Asian students going to UCLA, I’d bet you $100 that most of them come from affluent or near-affluent backgrounds. Poverty makes it much more difficult to succeed in life no matter what the color of your skin is. Now, if you can provide me empirical data from UCLA or elsewhere that shows that there’s a significant number of poor Asian students who go to school with GPAs comparable to whites and wealthier people, I’ll happily shut up and not post in this thread again. But I suspect that you won’t be able to do that.</p>
<p>Also, don’t misconstrue my argument. I never said that black people can’t get in to good schools without assistance from the government. In fact, I never even predicated my argument in favor of race, but in favor of socioeconomic class. There’s a difference.</p>
<p>It’s been proven that poverty increases your chances of going to prison, dying earlier, dropping out of school, doing drugs, decreases your chances of going to college and getting good grades in high school. Don’t you think it’s unfair to hold poorer students to an unfair standard? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>And just in case you think I have some sort of vested interest in supporting Affirmative Action, I’m just going to let you know right now that I have a 3.85 community college GPA and am a member of my school’s honors program. For the first year of college, I had a GPA of 4.0. I personally don’t need AA to get in to my dream school(UCLA). Thankfully, I’m somewhat shielded by the forces of poverty, despite living in it, but it has still affected me, just to a smaller degree. I’m not going to accuse you of being a racist simply because I have no reason to believe you are. I just happen to disagree with your position on the issue. It just doesn’t seem defensible to attribute such a massive and significant problem to something as weak(By comparison, anyway) as the opinions of some people who are members of your race/culture. Opinions don’t stop people from succeeding. Powerful societal forces and economic conditions do.</p>