Re: your mail

["Jason L. Jarvis" <jarvijl5@wfu.edu>]

> 
> Its hard to believe that anyone would think the striking down of a
> law banning racial preferences is a new form of Jim Crow Law. If you think affirmative action is a fair method of determining issues such as college admissions or job placements, then I suggest you talk to Asian-Americans (a historically
> oppressed minority group--a.k.a. interment camps, 1940's) who are/were excluded from admission because of "affirmative action programs. Maybe the courts are correct that admissions should be based upon merit.
> Scott Elliott
> 

The real problem is that people don't start from the same point. IE many 
people don't have equal footing. A good example: I grew up in the south. 
While there are laws that seem to force integration, my hometown, like 
many others, is not integrated. I went to the good, predominantly white 
public school. The opportunities and education that I received were 
superior to the opportunities and education received by people who 
attended the "black" or "minority" high schools in town.  

Given this inequality, how can one justify a merit based system? 
A merit based system as many people point out, presumes that there is 
cultural and institutional equality from the beginning. Absence of such 
equality, inevitably means a continuation of the status quo 
inequalities.  

Jason Jarvis
WFU

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References:

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• From: mgremillion@selu.edu

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