Why is affirmative action bad?
Jim C. writes:
On another important subject: Don’t you think it’s about time we discussed the real cost of creating a make-believe black overclass? Even Charles Murray referred to the Obamas as “elite,” when we all know that they hail from the parasitic black affirmative action class.
LA replies:
“the real cost of creating a make-believe black overclass”
That’s an interesting way of putting it. My way of putting the problem is that we are dragging our society down by putting non-qualified people in various positions while making it impossible to discuss the truth about what we are doing. What is the idea that you’re trying to get at?
Jim C. replies:
You hit the nail on the head—I was absolutely shocked that Obama would admit that he made a crucial executive decision (to keep pushing forward on Obamacare despite Democrats’ warnings that this was a mistake) based on luck. I’m also concerned about the real costs of “designing” institutions to accommodate the elite dullards.
LA replies:
Well, I have made that point many times. I’ve pointed out that conservatives, to the extent that they criticize racial quotas or AA at all (which is hardly at all for some years now), criticize it for “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” i.e., for hurting blacks. Occasionally they criticize it for its injustice to whites, as in the Grutter suit against the University of Michigan. But they NEVER criticize AA for unjustly putting millions of people in positions for which they are unqualified—thus validating and spreading incompetence, harming the functionality of our institutions, and lowering the whole level of our society.
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Mark Jaws writes:
Why is affirmative action bad? Let me count the ways. First and foremost, AA is “anti-white racial profiling,” as it insidiously assumes that whites have had it made in life simply because of our skin color. It thus stereotypes us and it mocks our accomplishments, such as those of yours truly, who had to overcome low socio-economic status at birth without any breaks, any quotas (for poor white boys), or cheerleading from the liberal establishment.
Let me list some of the other reasons about AA using my 34 years with the Department of Defense during which I have had to deal with black NCOs who could not perform simple mathematics such as subtracting fractions, black company commanders who could not read maps, black government workers who thought New England is a state or that North Carolina borders the Pacific Ocean, or who, more often than not, when confronted with well-intended constructive criticism from a white peer or supervisor, played the race card. Such behavior is poisonous to unit cohesion, and thank God the U.S. military has not had to confront a really capable adversary since Viet Nam. For example, Desert Storm was a cakewalk. I was the order of battle officer for one of the Army corps which took on the Iraqi Republican Guard. My senior “analyst” happened to be a black Sergeant First Class who had transferred from the administrative branch where promotion opportunities were scarce. This NCO could not perform basic analysis; he exhibited writing skills at the junior high school level. When I asked him to write a simple unclassified article on Iraqi mine capabilities for our Corps Intelligence Summary, he accused me of “setting him up for failure.” When I brought this matter to the attention of the Deputy G-2, I was told “not to rock the boat” and find something else for Sergeant X to do.
There is no doubt in my mind that had the civil rights movement occurred 50 years earlier and the racial composition of the U.S. Army during World War II been what it is today, the German Wehrmacht and the Japanese army would have prevailed, and mutiny would have broken out in many of the American ground units. The mutiny which took place against Captain Sobel in the award-winning mini-series “Band of Brothers” would have been played out in hundreds, if not thousands, of units led by incompetent non-white officers and senior NCOs.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 06, 2011 10:10 AM | Send