Sweatshops and Affirmative Action
01.17.2003
Dan spotted this billboard ad while driving through Kalamazoo's North Side. I usually respect the Ad Council, but this ad is a bit weird. It may especially be a bad choice for the North Side (of course, this isn't the fault of the Ad Council, but of whoever put the sign up in its location). I'm not really sure what to think of it. Dan worries it might further racial tensions. After all, the sign seems to suggest (in it's Kalamazoo North Side context) that white people are more than willing to exploit poor black people.
But then again ... if you drop out of school and refuse all the opportunities granted you (free public school, something people in most third world countries only dream about) then you probably don't have much of a right to blame others for your hard life.
Let's place this in the context of the recent controversy over the U of M affirmative action case. I'm opposed to various forms of affirmative action as currently practiced. I don't deserve preferential treatment just because of my Spanish surname. After all, aren't we supposed to be judged by the "content of our character" rather than the color of our skin? Spin Sanity has a really good post about the differences between civil rights and affirmative action (they may overlap, but are not synonymous). My favorite is this excerpt from Instapundit:
The logical implication of statements comparing racial discrimination with legacy preferences for alumni is that racial discrimination isn't uniquely bad. But is that true? But for an accident of history, might Martin Luther King have been leading marches against legacy preferences, or athletic recruiting? I don't think so.
A problem w/ affirmative action is that it heightens racial tensions. When a student of color walks into a college classroom, white students wonder if he/she is there because of affirmative action, not merit. This often leads to resentment among white students and vicious self-doubt among students of color.
Secondly, I find affirmative action programs insulting. Why can't I enter college based on my own merit? The idea that I need extra points because of my skin color or surname implicitly assumes that I'm not able to achieve on my own merits. If that's the case, then let's bring out The Bell Curve (by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray) and use it to calculate precisely just how many extra points us dumb minorities need.
Posted by Miguel at 02:52 PM
Comments
It's definitely a slap on the face, isn't it?
I love it! It's a juicy ad. It's a great reminder - STAY IN SCHOOL!!!
So, the ad council put up this billboard? Thats what I don't understand.
Posted by: Lippy at January 18, 2003 07:55 AM
As for affirmative action, that was a strange concept when I first heard it - that you can give extra 'points' to get into college (jobs too) based on one's race. It definitely places unfair emphasis on the race rather than individual merits. Although the motivations behind AA are good, put in place after a long time, it's not effective as people expect it to be a given. The most destructive thing is the people who are affected by it get sucked into this 'helplessness' syndrome... anyways, "success" is mostly abt your habits and attitude, than genes.
BTW, I read the article abt Bell Curve: wow, I must be a very dumb Chinese - I am horrible at Math and I'm not that hardworking, so I shouldn't have babies. I'd drag the entire race down!!
Posted by: Lippy at January 18, 2003 01:19 PM
I too agree that affirmative action is no longer needed. As an Asian-AMERICAN I feel that it is a slap in the face to receive 20 extra points just because of the shape of my eyes. I want to know I made it some place (school, a job, awards, etc.) because of my merit, not because I was seen as a quota filler.
In Larry Elder's book "The Ten Things You Can't Say in America" (excellent libertarian reading) he states that affirmative action was only supposed to be a ten year program to level the playing field when it was put into place. So in other words, affirmative action should have ended in the 1970s to the 1980s at the latest. Yet for some reason we are still having this debate today.
To completely level the playing field I say that things such as college applications should be different in terms of admission. The only thing that should be on an admission is your social security number, your high school activities, GPA, and ACT/SAT scores. That way won't admit you because of who your father was, you can play ball really well, or because your name just doesn't sound "foreign" enough to recieve the extra points.
That's my two cents on the whole subject.
Posted by: Kara at January 18, 2003 09:47 PM
Abt that billboard, it just came to mind, what if the lines had been:
Persoally, I love immigrants.
My sweatshop's full of them.
?
Posted by: Lippy at January 19, 2003 02:34 AM
Personally, I think the billboard was in poor taste. It's also not very well thought out. Clearly, the billboard is using sarcasm and a pretty sophisticated ammount of witt. But if you target audience is potential high school dropouts ... and let's face it, these aren't the brightest bulbs in the box ... the intended message is probably lost on them. Instead, the billboard just seems to say: "Kill whitey!"
Posted by: Miguel at January 19, 2003 03:08 AM
that would be an interesting billboard.
I dont like having to write my email everytime i post :(
Posted by: bil at January 19, 2003 10:56 AM