I would agree that today affirmative action is a bust. However, in the early part of its implimentaion, one could quantify benefits to poor people in general. when looking back at "The Great Society" with an honest eye one will find there were lots of people (across all spectrums) rising out of poverty. As with most well intended programs they disolve into generic programs that become quite ineffective.
"One of Johnson's aides, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., has countered that "from 1963 when Lyndon Johnson took office until 1970 as the impact of his Great Society programs were felt, the portion of Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent, the most dramatic decline over such a brief period in this century."[26] The percentage of African Americans below the poverty line dropped from 55 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 1968."
The above is from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
In my mind the reason we cannot acheive these goals is simply that there is a powerful contigency in the US who feels strongly that government has no role in these matters. I suggest if there is no role for the government, who then will insure this remains a civilized society. And not a dog eat dog world?
>> Is it possible that, in general, black and latino kids just don't put as high a value on a college education as white kids do? And, therefore, just don't work as hard to get the good grades necessary to get into a good college? What part does having children out of wedlock play in this? Black and latino women have a much higher instance of this than either white or Asian women.
My father was a professor of education and his main focus was in the public education system. K-12 and beyond. In his writings it is clear he believed that a committment to education gave the best result. In both education for enlightenment or for job prospects. He would also speak of disadvantaged people (not only race and gender etc but developmentally disabled or physically handicapped etc as well) not having a strong committment to the educational process. And he attributed most of this to each person's life experiences. Hence, if you grow up without some sort of affirmation that an education will be beneficial you will not committ to the educational process. i.e If I grow up in a poor violent neighborhood do you think I will commit to a higher education? That person's world view is: As far as I can see McDonalds is the only place hiring in my neighborhood.
This in a nutshell is what the affirmative action ideas was to address. Until a given group of people begin to believe that change is possible and that they would benefit from the change, that group will not risk time and energy let alone financial resources to make the changes.
I agree with this poster. This kind of article only scratches the surface. There are no easy answers.
And by the way... next time you hear someone compare today with the 60s tell them it just ain't true! The 60s was about human rights and humanities were an integral part of everyone's life. Now with disappearing humanities in universities..... comes the curtailing of human rights.
Because we know less and less what it means to be human.
If you want to understand how our country came to this, it is quite well summed up in 260 or so pages in a book called "The Authoritarians" by Bob Altemeyer.
Download the book here: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
This is written from extensive research into right wing authoritarian personality (right wing is not a political aspect here). If you want to know why the entire globe seems to be following this destructive (destructive from a majority point of view) read this. It becomes easy to see why politicians can kill their own citizens. How can someone let Wall St bankers off the hook yet throw someone in jail for possessing one joint and throw away the key.
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions Won't be nothing Nothing you can measure anymore The blizzard, the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul - Leonard Cohen "The Future"
These are not isolated events anymore. Everything is being turned upside down.
I made a loan or two through Kiva and then one day it dawned on me that all this sort of microfinance does is enslave unsuspecting people to debt slavery.
Kiva was charging 18% interest then. Capitalism is much like some evangelical religions.... it needs to spread. Often times like a virus instead of a force for good.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. Thorium. Should have been done long ago.
and still is rife.
Because it is not just a job.. it is an adventure!
this is news worthy for slashdot.org?
Something like this might go a long way in providing an alternative to the usual suspects:
http://ideologicalfootprint.org/
how about you give back a small percentage of your riches and save even more lives.
I would agree that today affirmative action is a bust. However, in the early part of its implimentaion, one could quantify benefits to poor people in general. when looking back at "The Great Society" with an honest eye one will find there were lots of people (across all spectrums) rising out of poverty. As with most well intended programs they disolve into generic programs that become quite ineffective.
"One of Johnson's aides, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., has countered that "from 1963 when Lyndon Johnson took office until 1970 as the impact of his Great Society programs were felt, the portion of Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent, the most dramatic decline over such a brief period in this century."[26] The percentage of African Americans below the poverty line dropped from 55 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 1968."
The above is from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
In my mind the reason we cannot acheive these goals is simply that there is a powerful contigency in the US who feels strongly that government has no role in these matters. I suggest if there is no role for the government, who then will insure this remains a civilized society. And not a dog eat dog world?
>> Is it possible that, in general, black and latino kids just don't put as high a value on a college education as white kids do? And, therefore, just don't work as hard to get the good grades necessary to get into a good college? What part does having children out of wedlock play in this? Black and latino women have a much higher instance of this than either white or Asian women.
My father was a professor of education and his main focus was in the public education system. K-12 and beyond. In his writings it is clear he believed that a committment to education gave the best result. In both education for enlightenment or for job prospects. He would also speak of disadvantaged people (not only race and gender etc but developmentally disabled or physically handicapped etc as well) not having a strong committment to the educational process. And he attributed most of this to each person's life experiences. Hence, if you grow up without some sort of affirmation that an education will be beneficial you will not committ to the educational process. i.e If I grow up in a poor violent neighborhood do you think I will commit to a higher education? That person's world view is: As far as I can see McDonalds is the only place hiring in my neighborhood.
This in a nutshell is what the affirmative action ideas was to address. Until a given group of people begin to believe that change is possible and that they would benefit from the change, that group will not risk time and energy let alone financial resources to make the changes.
I agree with this poster. This kind of article only scratches the surface. There are no easy answers.
How can poor minorities obtain employment in the tech giants when one of the requirements is to list "lived in Mom's basement for 1 year"
Wouldn't it be cheaper to move all of the people in the midwest to China? That's where all the jobs went anyway
Profit IS the problem adbusters.org
Yes... this is unfortunate that humanities students have no place to go to study humans, I mean humanitites.
What we need are more and more computers and gadgets to isolate ourselves from other humans. See. No need to study humanities
Human rights don't.
And by the way... next time you hear someone compare today with the 60s tell them it just ain't true! The 60s was about human rights and humanities were an integral part of everyone's life. Now with disappearing humanities in universities..... comes the curtailing of human rights.
Because we know less and less what it means to be human.
If you want to understand how our country came to this, it is quite well summed up in 260 or so pages in a book called "The Authoritarians" by Bob Altemeyer.
Download the book here: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
This is written from extensive research into right wing authoritarian personality (right wing is not a political aspect here). If you want to know why the entire globe seems to be following this destructive (destructive from a majority point of view) read this. It becomes easy to see why politicians can kill their own citizens. How can someone let Wall St bankers off the hook yet throw someone in jail for possessing one joint and throw away the key.
Enjoy...it is very enlightening. And FREE!
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul - Leonard Cohen "The Future"
These are not isolated events anymore. Everything is being turned upside down.
Right... this is the latest in a very long history: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-deputy-trial-20140529-story.html
I'll be so glad to be out of LA in a couple of weeks.
I agree. Daily they scan the skies. I live in LA. We call them ghetto birds.
He will still be a snitch. Inside. Or outside. Someday, somewhere someone might just come calling.
Capitalism.
More info here: https://www.adbusters.org/
Let's have everyone from the Joint Chiefs down examine morals from a human rights perspective. War is immoral from the git go.
Excellent recommendation. Also a good life manual. Keep life simple.
I made a loan or two through Kiva and then one day it dawned on me that all this sort of microfinance does is enslave unsuspecting people to debt slavery.
Kiva was charging 18% interest then. Capitalism is much like some evangelical religions.... it needs to spread. Often times like a virus instead of a force for good.
Funny..my Yahoo account is a spam dump too.
I find it comical that when I empty my spam folder an advertisement pops up in the window. Sad
Internet connectivity is about ease of accessing information. Google, Yahoo, JStor etc are about monetizing the access to that information.
See: Arron Swartz
Well... I tend to think George W Bush was both. Stupid and evil. Yet he was *someone I could have a beer with* personality.
Your argument has merit. Just read the book "Whats the Matter With Kansas" by Thomas Frank.