"Affirmative Action" applied in College grading

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2003-04-17 03:14pm

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/82003ma.asp

Despite all of this, I have decided to abandon my long-standing opposition to affirmative action after listening to the oral arguments in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case challenging admissions policies at the University of Michigan. While listening to these recorded arguments, I learned that public universities have a "compelling interest in diversity" which supersedes simplistic notions of reverse discrimination. Now, because my views have changed, I am forced to alter my classroom grading policies.

Students in my classes will continue to have their final grades based principally on test performance. Students will also continue to have a portion of their grade determined by class participation and/or a final paper depending on the class in which they are enrolled (please consult your course syllabus if you are one of my students).

After I compute final averages, I will then implement the new aspect of the grading process which is modeled after existing affirmative action policies at the university. Specifically, I will be computing a class average which I will then compare to the individual performance of all white males enrolled in my classes. All white males who exceed the class average will have points deducted and added to the final averages of women and minorities. A student need not have ever engaged in discrimination in order to have points deducted. Nor must a student have ever been a victim of discrimination in order to receive additional points.

I expect that my new policy will be well received by some, and poorly received by others. For those in the latter category, please contact Human Resources for further elaboration on the concept of affirmative action. You may also contact the Office of Campus Diversity for additional guidance.

I understand that many of you may consider my new position to be unprincipled. Please understand, however, that the university has long abandoned antiquated principles of "fairness" in favor of identity politics. Also understand that my job as a university professor is to prepare you for the real world.

After all, no one promised that life would always be fair.

Thoughts? I need to go vomit, now.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-17 03:16pm

well, there goes my motivation to suceed.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-04-17 03:16pm

He was kidding, obviously. Funny.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-04-17 03:31pm

"Dr. Mike S. Adams (adams_mike@hotmail.com) is an associate professor of criminal justice at UNC-Wilmington. He is an expert in satire and is prone to occasional bouts of excessive sarcasm. He is also frequently chastised for telling the truth at the expense of people's feelings."

This part might have been helpful for you to read.

I bet Michael Jackson is kicking himself for trying to become white.

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2003-04-17 03:46pm

Queeb Salaron · Post by **Queeb Salaron** » 2003-04-17 03:56pm

FANTASTIC! I know he's doing this to stir shit up (as the French say, d'uh), and I am behind him 110%. I hate the concept of affirmative action, and it is high time that someone did something about this. This proposed grading policy not only actively combats Aff. Act. with its own policies, but also displays the idiocy of these policies for all to see.

No, the real world is NOT fair, Mr. Adams, and I thank you for pointing that out.

Long live satire.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-04-17 03:56pm

I could tell the instant I read it that it was a joke...but it's also very pointy and sharp. Great read.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-04-17 04:00pm

Excellent hunting, Connor. That was a good read for me too!

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-17 04:47pm

The biggest problem with affirmative action is hardly anyone actualy understands the concept and impliment AA policies in the worst possible way.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-04-17 05:29pm

Actually, it's a superb, albeit inadvertent commentary on what right-wing assholes think affirmative-action proponents are trying to promote.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-04-17 05:32pm

I don't think any AA supporters honestly would support a system like the one described above, but that IS how AA often ends up in reality.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-04-17 06:30pm

I guess I'd be OK with AA if all the collegiate sports teams were representive of their state's racial proportions.

The_Nice_Guy · Post by **The_Nice_Guy** » 2003-04-18 04:43am

It's just too bad basic education at the primary levels in the US are so uneven. Affirmative action is just one way to try to treat the symptom of unbalanced racial representation due to differences in primary level education. It does nothing to cure the problem directly.

That said, treating the symptom is better than nothing, I guess.

The Nice Guy

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-04-18 09:07am

I get slightly uncomfortable at the idea, but since I live in Denmark, not America, it probably won't affect me the slightest. (But maybe it does - if so, it would certainly explain why the highest-graded of my classmates is the daughter of Afghan immigrants!)

It just smells like the mentality "two wrongs make one right." (in this case in the variant known as "the solution to discrimination is reverse discrimination")

I can understand that women - and some ethnic minorities - are being denied high-rank jobs for no reason, but... as a caucasoid male who often does better than the class average, I naturally have some inhibitions.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-18 09:58am

Properly run AA can work and would not anger very many people. However, the problem is two fold. First, this attempts to fix a problem by adressing the symptom, but not the problem itself. Two, it fails to identify the actual problem.

The real problem is that minorities need AA not because of their race so much as because they don't have the same levels of education that whites have. Because of this higher educated whites have a greater chance of getting a job then a minority who only has the basic qualifications. To remedy this the educaiton system needs to be overhalled and access needs to be made available to minorities. That is not to say this would be an easy thing to do.

The_Nice_Guy · Post by **The_Nice_Guy** » 2003-04-18 10:37am

Not all minorities have this problem. IIRC, asians(indians, chinese, vietnamese, etc) in the US are accorded the same status as whites when any affirmative action in education is considered. Blacks and hispanics get the bonuses, but not asians.

Perhaps it can be said that's because Asians know the value of proper education and seek all and any means to secure that education for their children.

So why not the blacks and hispanics? What exactly is it that prevents them from taking the same steps as recent(and not so recent) immigrants(refugees) from Asia? Is it that they really have no opportunity, no shot at quality education at all, or is it an attitude problem, which might be further exercabated by affirmative action?

The Nice Guy

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-04-18 10:39am

Affirmative Action(for minorities) exists to counterbalance racial intolerance and strengthen the minority communities that for a great while held blacks and other minorities out of higher levels of professions.
AA also got a good number of politicians into school, as some of their fathers went to the same school. They get points on that.

Whites have a much higher mean income, this means the white children typically are given a better more intensive education from the get go. The fact that a good number of the college educated white men in america today got their positions through frat networking is also tilts the balance.

AA is opportunity management. Making minorities equals in the professional world is the goal.

This is also the aim of those who are trying to get the Augusta Golf Club to admit women, because it is a networking hub for american business. Everybody who is a major player in business in the US is a member their, unless they are a woman.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-04-18 10:44am

The_Nice_Guy wrote: So why not the blacks and hispanics? What exactly is it that prevents them from taking the same steps as recent(and not so recent) immigrants(refugees) from Asia?

I'm not sure, but maybe they are more disliked (than other minorities) within the upper echelons of the education system?

The_Nice_Guy · Post by **The_Nice_Guy** » 2003-04-18 10:56am

Simon H.Johansen wrote:I'm not sure, but maybe they are more disliked within the upper echelons of the education system?

And asian immigrants are not disliked?

I dunno, but my guess is that at the lower echelons, blacks and hispanics, for any number of reasons which I have no idea what they are, are unable to receive the same quality basic education that will serve as a sound foundation for their higher studies.

The Nice Guy

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-04-18 02:16pm

The_Nice_Guy wrote:
Simon H.Johansen wrote:I'm not sure, but maybe they are more disliked within the upper echelons of the education system?
And asian immigrants are not disliked?

I gotta confess that I don't know much about minorities' statues in America, as I live in Denmark.

Sorry if I got anything wrong.

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2003-04-18 05:43pm

Isn't that kind of a roundabout way of going about it? I don't agree with AA in any form, but if you have it, wouldn't basing it on yearly income of parents instead of race make a better system? After all, these problems are supposed to stem from the bad schools that poor kids have to go to, instead of biological limits that race-based AA seems to imply.

[BL]Phalanx · Post by **[BL]Phalanx** » 2003-04-18 05:55pm

Oh, discrimination against Asians was once also fairly bad in the USA.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-04-18 06:05pm

Fucking load of shit, any teacher who does that should be promtly fired.

Affirmative Action is just a bandaid on a sympton of Americas problumes of uneqal education, and a piss poor one at that. Change peoples grades is the same thing, a real solution would make such changes unnesscary.

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2003-04-18 07:20pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:Fucking load of shit, any teacher who does that should be promtly fired.

Affirmative Action is just a bandaid on a sympton of Americas problumes of uneqal education, and a piss poor one at that. Change peoples grades is the same thing, a real solution would make such changes unnesscary.

Woah! Cool down.

The article was meant to be humourous. It's actually meant to be against Affirmative Action.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-04-18 07:30pm

Isnt satire wonderful....unfortunately, often people seem to need a "Satire Inside" label....anyway....

AA is a remarkably retarded way of doing things.....Equal Oppertunities my ass, if it did what it said on the tin that'd be great, but it doesnt.....cure the disease rather than treating symptoms (badly at that) and things will be better.