| | Donna,
First of all, Hi.. Glad to see you. Welcome, and I hope you choose to stick around.
I've read a couple of your posts now where you defend affirmative action. You seem to believe it has benefitted Blacks (and other minorities and "oppressed" groups---women, gays, etc.) As a self-identified Objectivist (who just happens to be Black) and someone who, as a result, can't help but see things from the individualist point of view, I have to say a couple of things about affirmative action. First of all...You're right! Absolutely! Affirmative action does help people...specific people...the people who get the job, or the spot in the class in college, unearned, because they fit the description required for the quota. Hell, if I could get a plum job over a white person (who's more qualified), and know that, even if my job performance isn't that great, but no one would dare comment about it, deny me a raise, or, heaven forbid, fire my ass without fear of my (inevitable) sexual or racial harrassment suit (which I would either win, outright, or manage to settle, quietly, for BIG BUCKS) yes...I would have to say that I have definitely benefitted. Personally.
I would have officially become a "looter" (a bad word in these here Objectivist circles.) But to suggest that the program has aided all Blacks or minorities is, I'm sorry, insane. It is collectivist thinking at its best (or worst, depending on your point of view.) My personal and financial progress---or lack thereof--- has absolutely nothing to do with what other minorities have or have not gained, earned or unearned. Period. I cannot be "proud" of Oprah Winfrey's success as a billionaire Black woman (as I had absolutely nothing to do with it) just as I am not "ashamed" of any horrible Black criminal featured on the news. These people simply have nothing to do with me. And, just in case you want to argue an "association" type angle...like, "Well, because of affirmative action, it is easier to for (the white, male, prejudiced powers-that-be) to accept seeing minorities in better jobs, positions of power, etc., and that helps all of us..." Wrong. It doesn't. It does the opposite. When the "white man" (sorry, all---this will have to do as my euphemism for "the oppressor", for the purposes of this particular argument) has been forced to hire us, accept us, and, as I mentioned before, keep us employed because otherwise he'll be getting an unpleasant visit from the likes of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, some TV cameras, and a lawyer ready to sue, all it does is confirm that we aren't truly worthy...none of us are, but they (the oppressors) better "get with the program", or it's gonna cost them. I don't want to be anywhere where everyone else believes that the only reason I'm there is because I'm a charity case...if I cannot earn the right to be someplace, based on my own merits and talents, then I don't belong there. The company, or college, in question does not deserve to have to put up with me, and the customers (or whoever else receives the end product of my endeavors) does not deserve to receive that end product (if it doesn't meet the normally accepted standards.)
As a "community" Blacks (and this applies to other "oppressed" peoples) will never earn any actual respect unless enough of their members earn their accomplishments. (This of course, unfortunately, caters to the idea that I give a crap what the prejudiced think, and how they judge me and "my" people...as an individualist, I don't...I know that if I am rejected (for that for which I'm qualified) based solely on the color of my skin, it's their loss...just as I recognize that if I am accepted (for that for which I am NOT qualified) based solely on the color of my skin...it's their loss, as well.
Erica
P.S. I noticed in your profile that you have an advanced degree from Harvard...pretty impressive...unless, of course, Harvard accepted you with subpar grades and abilities, and only because you're Black. (I would NEVER have thought or assumed such a thing initially...I was thoroughly impressed with your academic credentials at face value (as mine don't begin to approach that level)...until you so vigorously defended affirmitive action...do you now see the problem with how others may view Blacks who have "achieved", when there is also the knowledge that their "success" may have been forced upon its benefactor?)
P.S.S. Everything else aside, I do love the the "Get to living" thing in your screen name...now THAT I can get behind wholeheartedly. :-)
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