The Affirmative Action Debate in Light of the New Haven 20

Affirmative Action (AA) has been a topic of heated debate since its inception. Despite the fact that the greatest beneficiaries of AA initiatives have been white women, AA is still mischaracterized as a race-based legislation that gives an immensley unfair headstart to minorities in the US.

SCOTUS's recent decision in support of 20 white firefighter's from New Haven which ruled the AA initiatives of their employer - conducted in order to prevent a discrimination lawsuit - were unconstitutional. The case has sparked up the AA debate once again further promoting the idea that AA unfairly advantages minorities. Just some general thoughts on AA:

AA is necessary because it's been proven and time-tested that whites or those in power will always support their own over "others" when all other variables are equal or nearly equal. In a world where a black man with no felony convictions gets hired at a lower rate than a white male who does have a felony conviction, we have a long way to go before we can honestly state that AA is obselete.

On the flip-side, there are some disparities in college and grad school exams and in civil service testing that can be directly traced back to substandard educational conditions in minority communities in comparison to the higher educational opportunities that their white counterparts have. Suburban schools have stronger tax bases that give better financial support to their schools. Less minority families who live in urban areas can afford private education. AA is needed in post-secondary education until minority children are carrying grades and the exam scores that aren't so much lower than white children.

BUT....AA aside....I DO believe in academics....minorities bear some responsibility for the achievement gap between minority children and white children. When we were "separate and unequal" we achieved. We achieved with substandard supplies and buildings and staffing. We still did it. Education was paramount in the home. It's not been like that since the 80's. We don't value it anymore. I have to wonder if the "achievement gap" has less to do with discrimination and more to do with lazy, uneducated, unpurposeful parents.

Statistically, our children get lower entrance exam grades. There was a time when we would work with next to nothing to rear a successful child. We don't have family units doing that anymore. Those black and hispanic firefighters should not have overwhelmingly failed that exam. And, quite frankly, I do not want an embicile leading a fire crew when my house is all ablaze. Why did they overwhelmingly fail? It HAD to have had something to do with their education....and whose to blame for that? Maybe the govt needs to do more to outfit our public school system and bring it up to speed....but in the meantime....what are the parents gonna do?