Time to get rid of affirmitative action?

I am writing this because I am a white 28 year old male that is attempting to go back to college. I am not a rich man, as a matter of fact I am very poor. The problem that I am having is that I am not able to get any government assistance for tuition.

BTW- This is my first thread so go easy on my spelling and grammar, I am not a good writer, I am an engineer.

Anyways, I have several black friends that currently make more money than I do, and also have no children. They have been able to get the maximum on their pale grant, while I have been able to get NOTHING.

This got me wondering, first I tried contacting the school, then I even tried my congressman and senator. I was actually told by each person that the only thing keeping me from getting the funds I need is the color of my skin.

Is this really something that is affirmative. I thought the goal of affirmative action was to make things equal for minorities. Then seems to make things more than equal does it not?

So I did some more digging and came up with this article:
thedailyvoice.com...

It pretty much states that by the year 2042 white people will actually become a minority. That is not very far off. It shows that the population is starting to even out, so why are continuing to say that whites have all of the advantages, and why are we still giving a free pass to minorities. It is simple. It is a way for politicians to get votes.

There is an easy way to get rid of this evil practice, and that is to take race off of all government paper work and applications, as well as college applications. The race of a person is rarely seen when applying for loans, grants, or even school, so why do we even put it on the application. Lets make things truley even, let people get what they earn, by merit, true need , but not by the color of their skin.

I agree with the OP here totally. The entire concept of 'affirmative action' by its definition discriminates against white people. This violates the constitution as well, the equal protection clause to be specific, but our elected leaders are only concerned with keeping their jobs, not the rule of law.

reply to post by russ212


Good Luck to you, I hope you are afford the same chance as everyone else, even though it seems highly unlikely.

reply to post by russ212


Black Male here,

I too am not eligible for the pale grant. The only scholarships I am eligble seem to be the HOPE scholarship, which I have been awarded for the past year and a half, and a military benefit scholarship that I am able to receive thanks to my Mother and Father's service to our nation.

What is keeping myself from gaining other scholarships as well? My GPA? Definitely not.

I believe affirmative action has run its course.

Now, can't you still get student loans?

Yes, Reverse racism is very big. Especially noted in California.

I lived through it, I have nothing to back it up like articles etc.

Personal experience went thus...

I went to get some free groceries during Thanksgiving that were offered from the state while I was unemployed.

They said that I had to get there at least a month early to get any 'real' food.

The people that know and work the system were well prepared.

When I went to the location where they actually distribute the food, all that was left was 5 day old assortment of breads ONLY.

While I watched a number of black and mexican families, one family with a brand new Cadilac, load up on luscious Thanksgiving staples.

(oh and back at the office where you apply for the goods, they said that since I was honest and told them I had a new car acquired via family death that I should just sell the car for $8,000. no groceries for me.)

Anyhow, that's just one of countless encounters with reverse racism. Yes, it was all blacks working in that office and at the distribution center.

And yes, they made me feel VERY out of place. I needed to be black or hispanic to ask for assistance. That was the creepy feeling that I got the whole time...


[edit on 2·16·10 by DrMattMaddix]

reply to post by russ212


Of course it is time to get rid of affirmative action. It was time to get rid of it 20 years ago.

We will never get rid of it.

Affirmative action is predicated on statistical evidence. The goals are determined by percentages of different minority populations in certain roles within the society and their comparrison to the percentage of those groups within the society at large.

Despite the fact that we have had a black President, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General and numerous other minor cabinet secretarys, the spectre of discrimination is still there. At the corporate level, blacks have also achieved the highest ranks, including the top jobs at both IBM and Merril Lynch.

The reason we will have affirmative action is cultural. 70 percentage of black children grow up in single parent homes, which has a significant correlation with high-school drop out rates, drug use and criminal behavior. While the black middle and upper classes are growing and that is a fantastic story for the US, the black underclass is growing faster. As a consequence, as long as the statistical measures are maintained and I believe they will always be maintained because of the egalatarian nature of the government elites today, we will always have affirmative action.

I wish you well. Perhaps you should investigate some of the government programs where they are pushing folks to enter school for specific reasons, such as to become a teacher. Get into school, get your degree or see what options you have in changing your major once you're in school. You might also check out the Americorps, which believe provides educational incentives.

I know, probably most of the folks on this site will say that those programs should not exist to begin with etc, etc. I don't think they should exist either. That does not mean you should not be selfish and take advantage of them while they do exist

Do any of you realize that affirmative action was NOT particularly intended for minorities? It was intended to benefit women, more specifically white women. It was designed to correct generations of sexist domination and anti-female discrimination in the workforce, minorities where a side issue that was included. I was there, I remember the debates and the vitriol that aimed at NOW, the National Organization of Women.

So try to understand the history of stuff before you make claims about what it is about.

Anyway, your lack of access to grants has more to do with the general state of the economy than reverse discrimination. Too much money has been siphoned off by banksters; what is left is insufficient to meet the needs of ordinary folks, black, white, brown, red, yellow, purple or green.

reply to post by apacheman


The history of it has nothing to so with the practical application of it today. It has been misused since its inception, including how it was implemented in support of women's rights and will continue to be.

What is sad about the OP's story is that Americans are required to "Borrow" money to pay for their education in the first place.
More debt slavery or servitude.

But of course when it comes to the War on Terror, we can find all of the money we need.....to borrow from the Zionist owned FED.

Meanwhile Obama, the CFR Rockefeller puppet president du jour is seeking a 3.4% increase in the pentagon's defense budget and $159 billion to fund missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."to the tune of $708 Billion for fiscal year 2011.

What if a fraction of that were reserved to educate Americans ?

I used to perform consulting work (as an engineer) for the major German automotive companies of Europe, Audi, Mercedes & Porsche.

All of the engineers in Europe attend secondary school and University for free which is the way it should be in the US.

In the US we Americans are granted a High School education for free....to keep us all dumbed down, but college and their inherent opportunities are reserved only for the wealthy.

Unfortunately Affirmative Action is a feeble attempt to make up for the years of the past when southern Blacks were denied even the opportunity to attend public high schools due their race.
Unfortunately, looking at the statistics, The damage has already been done and affirmative action won't fix it.

Just take a quick look at the statistics of crime, incarceration and college graduates amongst Blacks whom are only 14 % of the US population.

www.globalresearch.ca...

[edit on 16-2-2010 by nh_ee]

Sorry to hear of your difficulties Russ. There was a time that AA was good, perhaps even necessary but that time has long since passed. I'll shut up now before someone starts to label me racist. Equality for all. Special advantage for none.

reply to post by nh_ee


I completely agree with you, but one of the things about the free university education in most European countries is that it is only for a very select number of people. A fraction ofthe number of folks in Europe attend university than do in the US. Another notable thing is that it is for many of the universitys, completely discrete. You get a unique, random number and apply in a very quantitative application process. You are accepted or not based on performance.

reply to post by russ212


Good (but expect it to be a controversial) first thread.

Know what you mean, as well. My daughter is half hispanic. Trouble is she doesn't look like it. She's going to college now and we did discuss trying to see if that would help defray costs in some way, but decided it wouldn't be worth the hassles AND reverse discrimination.

Reverse discrimination is still discrimination ...



[edit on 2/16/2010 by centurion1211]

You do know that our President was a beneficiary of the Affirmative Action program.

He used it to get in to both college and law school.

Probably so did his wife,Eric Holder and the rest of the minority's in his administration.

No wonder our country is in such a mess.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. "

I don't think affirmative action was what he had in mind.

If you read the affirmative action it is also used to help military veterans too.

Yeah right.

I got out of the military and heard there was a program that would assist me in finding a job.

This was in 1977 the first years of Carters misadministration.

They sent me to see the local administrator of the program at my court house.

It was Earl Butz,yes the same guy.

After leaving Washington in disgraced this worthless "turd" finagled a job with the government doing this.

I asked him if the program could help me get a job.

He said it was for blacks only.

He did get me a summer job working for a local city, only because I told him he knew my Grandfather,which he did.

Anyway look up student grants, there are others beyond the Pell grant.

There are some that are for LGBT if you are inclined that way.

Now you know why so many young people are joining the military.

You could try changing your name to sound Hispanic.

Ever heard of Jerry Rivers?

Maybe you know him better as Geraldo Rivera.

For the educational benefits.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by Oneolddude]

I currently have received my associates degree, and I had a GPA of 3.9 so I know that grades are not an issue, and I also know that the economy is not a issue because I have already been in college for just over 2 years and the economy did not get this bad until about a year ago.

As to the person that suggested that Affirmitave action was designed to help white women enter the workforce, I must inform you that you are incorrect. You are thinking of a different law, one that was designed to prevent sexual discrimination,it is called fair employment and housing act. While this law did tackle more than one thing. It was definatly not affirmative action. It was trying to bring about equality, not help one group over another.

One person asked if I was able to get loans, and yes I was, thanks for asking. But why should I have thirty to one hundred percent more to pay back because of the color of my skin. I am being penalized by our government and our colleges(all same thing) because I am not a minority.

The question is are we going to keep these practices when whites are no longer minorities?

reply to post by dolphinfan


This is simply a falsehood. Yes you do apply by a number, but the application also ask for your race. I would not have an issue if it did not.

reply to post by russ212


Of course they ask you your race in the US, that is the problem. With most of the elite universities in Europe and India it is an anonyomous application. Now that might be because there is so little diversity there, so it is safe to assume that if you are Swiss and applying to the U of Zurich you are Swiss, but it is a different model there and totally merit based. If you read the thread, that is what I was referring to.

reply to post by dolphinfan


I did read your thread, it just sounded like you were talking about the US having that policy. Maybe I misread it though

To russ212 and TheOneElectric

I think that if you guys are looking for grants, you should at least know how to spell it:

It's Pell grant, not pale grant.

Seriously. I'm not usually a spelling nazi, but adults show know better. Especially you, russ212, as an engineer you should be aware of the importance of accuracy.

From russ212
Anyways, I have several black friends that currently make more money than I do, and also have no children. They have been able to get the maximum on their pale grant, while I have been able to get NOTHING.

This got me wondering, first I tried contacting the school, then I even tried my congressman and senator. I was actually told by each person that the only thing keeping me from getting the funds I need is the color of my skin.

Sorry, I'm calling BS on this one. There's no way that all three, or even any one, of those told you that.

Heh, seems like you need to work on some things.