Quote:
Originally Posted by 3catcircus
This is certainly the case. I've been to many different nations and have lived outside the US. *Many* of the people decrying America as a systematically racist country fail to see that it just isn't so.
For example, when a college student-turned-activist decries the US as racist, it's done from the point of privilege of sometime afforded the opportunity to attend a college or university in the first place. If they are a minority, they're ignoring that they possibly had a leg up due to affirmative action or diversity quotas allowing them to attend while having a lower standardized test score or a lower grade point average that would prevent white or asian students from gaining admittance in the first place. And as they are attending that college getting their heads filled with Marxist theory, they go out and claim that Marxist dictatorships treat their people better without ever having set foot in a Marxist dictatorship *as an anonymous tourist rather than a coddled activist receiving the red carpet treatment* to live in such a country.
They want equality of opportunity to be equality is outcome instead of actually gaining based upon their own merits.
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Then there's the other side of the coin: privileged white students who get into colleges and universities for reasons that are not academically based, like: they are 'legacy' admissions because they have a prominent parent or other family member who was a prior alumnus; they have social connections that allow them to go to the head of the line (the old boy/old money/country club network); they have parents who donate heavily to the particular college of choice; they have parents who will willingly pay bribes to get their kid admitted; there is even the 'white heavy' network of prep schools and the like whose graduates get preferential admissions treatment over equally academically qualified applicants who didn't come from the 'right type' of prep/high school, etc. ...
Remember, Affirmative Action in college admissions didn't really become an issue until the Vietnam War when it became obvious minorities, due to the very nature of college admissions at that time, were being edged out of admission by the increased influx of white males who suddenly became 'academically incentivized' when their draft eligibility came up on turning 18 yo.; even blue collar guys, who might have otherwise foregone college in favor of working in jobs not needing degrees, but who otherwise had the grades to get into a college, began to apply for admission when the specter of "!A" loomed in their future; and parents, particularly fathers who had served through the hardships of WW2, were inclined to spend the money to defer their sons from possibly going to Vietnam...
Then there are the other, broader inequities in college admissions, like athletic admissions that completely ignore academic requirements and norms solely based on the physical abilities of the players of their particular sports; it is galling that an academically gifted student, who does actually meet academic admission standards, with no athletic prowess, often has to get themself in deep student loan debt while a 'dumbed down' jock can get admitted with no academic qualifications, can a full ride scholarship and then get 'snowflake' classes to attend and 'pass' once in college, simply because they can run fast, throw a ball, or some other such nonsense; I'm not saying athletes shouldn't get scholarships or admissions, just that the standard, in any any academic institution of higher learning, should be applied equitably for all students who apply...
At the time I graduated from high school, in 1969, Affirmative Action was a new concept in regards to education, as were readily available student loans; regardless of how one feels about Affirmative Action, it is still a highly visible example of the greatness of the US in that this nation is prepared to address inequities in a proactive manner rather than settle for a stagnant, deleterious 'status quo'; it might take us a while or it might be a bit painful for the 'haves' to share with the 'have-nots', but, owning up to failings and/or inequities and then having the guts and resolve to fix them is a major part of the US ideal...
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