"EQUAL" rights

[DOGS THAT BARK]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...=676&u=/usatoday/20030109/ts_usatoday/4764769

The day anyone walks into my office and tells me who i have to hire,I'll will point blank tell he or she to kiss my ass.--and if they try legal leverage I'll shut the doors and retire and tell em to put that in their sack.

 

[marine]

the country is faling apart...

But I STILL want to know why we never see any white boys on the student list at Grambling University!

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

DTB,

Don't you think that somebody coming into your office and telling you who to hire is very similar to a Supreme Court telling the University of Michigan what their admissions policies need to be.

If the University thinks that test scores may not be the best indicator of what makes a quality student, why would they not be allowed to be in charge of their own policies?

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

BBC: A very valid observation. I would have to agree your point has merit. I think Mich U should, as well as I make that choice. And both be responsible for the choices later,and not be asking anyone to bail us out on consequences of our decisions.

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

Agreed.

I'm actually for affirmative action but I understand the arguments on the other side. While there are weaknesses when you make any decision based on something other than ability, I think that when you take away affirmative action, it will also end up in people getting hired/promotions/appointments for reasons other than ability.

 

[Blazer]

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. is my hero. He may of been the bravest American to ever live. His namesake however has been abusied and distorted by his children and other who keep the race card as a strategic advantage. EQUALITY is what the "I have a Dream" speach was about not affirmative action, not 40 acres and a mule, EQUALITY.<P>
Today, I have a dream that good black football coaches are refered to as good coaches. I have a dream today, that when you fill out a from there are not boxes that ask if you are White, Black , Hispanic, or Asian. I have a dream that there are no stations like BET (black entertainment television), no exclusive white-only golf clubs, and every American is given the same opportunity to succed to his/her fullest potential. Will you dream with me.....

 

[saint]

Even if you removed affirmative action from the application process schools would figure out how to give "advantages" to minorities.

I am a 1st year student at a top-tier dental school and have seen some stuff that has seriously made me consider filing a lawsuit against the school.

Dental school for most of us started in August. There was, however, a head start program in which blacks, and only blacks, were allowed to start school 2 months early and take a crash course with all of the same professors that I was going to have, were allowed to take practice exams, get 1 on 1 instruction, etc. So basically they got to take the classes and tests before they had to for real. The thing that pisses me off is that the school can't even claim that it is for students with the lower GPAs who they feel might struggle, so they are giving them help. It is solely based on race.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. It was recently exposed that the minority students have their own advisor (who just happens to be black). They have a secret webpage with usernames and passwords where they can access test questions and help material ahead of time before tests that the rest of us don't get. I took a gross anatamy test last semester that took most of us the full 3-4 hours to complete, and there were 2 black guys done in 45 minutes!! It would not be physically possible to just read the questions and answers in that time without even thinking about them. This advisor that they have is also in charge of who gets what scholarships, so those minorities who aren't on a full ride already get ALL of the scholarships, even though I will be in 120,000 of debt just as they would. People have tried to study with some minorities and they respond by telling us that their advisor said it was "best to study in small groups of 2 or 3" so no.


But here is the worst part for me. I am interested in specializing after my 4 years of general dental school. It is extremely competitive to get into programs and a lot of it is based on class rank. These students are getting so many advantages over me it gives me a huge disadvantage and basically has an affect on my career earnings and entire future. So I know there are some law buffs out there, don't I have some merit for a case or not really by the written law? Getting the minorities in is one thing, but giving them these advantages can't be legal if it screws me so bad. I know the school probably does this because it is a public univ and the state probably puts pressure on them to produce much needed minority dentists.

It's funny, I was NEVER a racist person before I came to dental school. But you know what? I am now.

 

[djv]

We better start hireing folks on who is best qualified. Period. Next thing we better do fast in our country is all get color blind. We need to all stand togeather. I know it ant easy never was. But this country soon will be only half white. The other half will be a mix Black, Yellow, and Brown. Bush new this last election he went after there vote hard. No one should be told who to hire.

 

[jdh]

Blazer: Everyone does have the ability to live his/her dreams. Hell, we're pretty much the only country where that's possible. It comes down to whether a person has the fortitude to accomplish their goals. Was Martin Luther King Jr. and his party given the "right" to do what they did? Legally yes, but socially he battled with America and tore down the walls of segregation and helped black Americans and now other minorities in this country. And for that I aplaud him.

Affirmative Action is a touchy subject. I have personally seen it ruin a business. On the other hand I have seen people get the jobs they deserve. I was told in a History class many years ago that A.A. was intended and started for women's rights. Look how it has changed over the years.

Saint: I am absolutely apauled! I am printing this out to show my roommate's father who is a defense attorney. A.A. is being so manipulated by minorities that America's jobs really aren't being given to the qualified person but rather by color of skin (not in every case). I would hate to be knocked out in a chair with some Dentist who doesn't know which tooth to pull. If I were you I would scream and shout and make a bigger deal about this than MLK did. Not to cause a problem but because professional futures are at stake here. Being in a profession like this is not for all. Raise all the hell you can, someone out there is listening. Good Luck to you.

 

[SixFive]

Is affirmative action still necessary? Think how ridiculous it would be to have affirmative action in something we all love here, sports. In every sport, the best players play and get the scholarships and then go on to professional careers. What percentage of starters in the NBA and NFL are black? Way over 50%, right? Well, if there was affirmative action in sports, we would have to tell the best players, sorry, u can't play, we already have enough black people on the team. We have to get a proportional number of white boys to play even though u are better.

I think affirmative action was necessary in the past, I don't think it is now. Maybe my analogy above is flawed, but that's how I see it.

I wonder how typical saint's story is? Sounds like a crock of doo to me for this to go on.

 

[dr. freeze]

saints story is happening all across the US.....its BS.....and if you speak out against it they label you as a racist.....

 

[saint]

It's not as easy as going in to complain, plenty of us have thought about doing that. The problem is that the dental profession very tight knit like a fraternity, and if I was outspoken on this i would do way more damage than anything else. I'd be blackballed by just about every professor to the point where it would be hard to stay.

 

[wondo]

Sixfive- - i think this was discussed before, but by using affirmative action in sports does have some potential upside.

right now, there are very few afro-american baseball players. but there are plenty of good african american athletes. if you give a couple opportunities for some marginal, but talented, african americans to play, you have a chance that this will trickle down to encourage more young african americans to play baseball. the end result could be that you cultivate some superior athletes into a sport where they might not have gone had their predecessors not been given a little break.

on an academic level, i see a difference between being educated and having intelligence. a personal can be intelligent and have a high potential, but perhaps hasn't had an opportunity to learn how to use that intelligence. giving them extra opportunities to 'catch up' might not be such a bad idea. it would be like a doctor coming from a foreign country to the us -- maybe he doesn't speak english well yet but he has the skills necessary to be a good doctor. give him a chance to learn some english and you've got another good doctor in your society.

i guess it all is one of those philisophical questions as to whether society benefits by raising the standards of its lowest demographic.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I go back to the heading of "equal" rights by that I mean look at the person as if he had no color and judge on merit alone.

I too applaud Dr King
He told it like it was. His philosophy was "work" hard for what you want to achieve in life and be proud.