US Department of Justice fights for and wins case legalizing racial discrimination

Detroit— Michigan's ban on using race and gender as a factor in admission to public colleges and universities was overturned today by a federal appeals court, which said the voter-approved measure harms minorities and is unconstitutional.

The 2-1 decision struck down Proposal 2, the 2006 law that had forced the University of Michigan and other state schools to revise their admission policies. The judges ruled that the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

George Washington, the chief attorney for the law's opponents, applauded the decision today.

"It's a great victory. It means affirmative action is legal again in college admissions. It means that thousands of talented black, Latino and Native Americans can go to our public universities," Washington said.

Washington said the ruling means universities can again consider and adopt affirmative action polices.

Opponents of Proposal 2 blamed the measure for declines in the percentage of minorities in U-M's freshman classes in the years immediately after the ruling.

www.detnews.com...

Your justice department at work. As expected, more evidence from the Obama administration that they will do what they can to institute race based policy, whether they be in the case of voter's rights or now in government hiring and college admissions.

We're back to the day off race norming, tossing out more qualified applicants to build up quotas of minorities in universities and in public hiring. We're back to not knowing the qualifications of folks, knowing that a policy exists to deny access to qualified people based on the color of their skin.

We're back to the day when racial tension will surround many aspects of our daily lives.

Obama was touted as the "post racial" president and he has consistently shown himself and his administration, notably through his corrupt Department of Justice to be very racially motivated and supportive of active discriminatory policies enforced by the Federal Government.

This comes on the heels of an reinstitution of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to go after more trumped up discrimination lawsuites and strong arm the private sector into race norming policies.

Lets hope this is appealed and that the Supreme Court over turns this racist decision.

I personally dont see this as a victory. Admission should be based on merit.

Is it always the case that minorities, specifically Blacks and Hispanics by definition are at some kind of a disadvantage? Other minorities such as Asians (both Southern and Eastern) rely on academics for admission and are often the best performers, even when English is a second language.

While I understand the sentiment behind giving an opportunity to a Black or a Hispanic who comes from an underprivileged environment, I dont know that I agree with that opportunity coming at the expense of another student who's earned it.

Its a tough call but quotas and affirmative action are not the correct solution.

How about instead of assuming that it's only minority students who are at a disadvantage, we start basing it on socioeconomic class. A poor white kid is at a greater disadvantage that a middle class black kid.

As a Hispanic. This is a load of crap.

You should be there on your merits. No matter what the color.
Now maybe if you wanted to start a program to subsidize tuition for students from low incomes to give them a chance to go to a school. On top of grants and loans we already have. Well what's a few more dollars to the government? eh?

In any case that's what community college is for. I say let students go to their local CC and if they excel there open up some of that funding. Not everyone is cut out for college but at least they can find out.

reply to post by dolphinfan


I do think Universities should make allowances for students from impoverished backgrounds that have the intellectual capability to undertake degree level studies; but that it should not be based on the color of someone’s skin to whether they are afforded a catch-up opportunity.

I know a very smart person who grew up in numerous campgrounds ( 1- 3 week camping stay rule); constantly being moved around from school to school, only formally educated up to age 14, this person just fell through the cracks.
One day I was discussing quantum mechanics with this person; they asked how did they prove that, after a little while, this person came up with methods to test the theories and low and behold, their thinking was 100% correct as to how the great physicists of the 20th century had in fact tested their conclusions, I was totally blown away. If anyone deserves affirmative action, it’s this person who doesn’t even have a GED.

Merit is the only criteria that should matter. I agree with Grey580, the idea of more scholarships that will help underpriveage students is a great idea but putting someone in school based solely on thier color has been proven not to work before, that is why it was banned.

Originally posted by gladtobehere


Is it always the case that minorities, specifically Blacks and Hispanics by definition are at some kind of a disadvantage? Other minorities such as Asians (both Southern and Eastern) rely on academics for admission and are often the best performers, even when English is a second language.

Is that really a fair or accurate comparison?

"Blacks and Hispanics" are not at a disadvantage because they are racial 'minorities'. They are at a disadvantage because of several layers of socioeconomic disadvantages. Asians, as a whole, do not face those same sorts of obsticals.

While I understand the sentiment behind giving an opportunity to a Black or a Hispanic who comes from an underprivileged environment, I dont know that I agree with that opportunity coming at the expense of another student who's earned it.

Its a tough call but quotas and affirmative action are not the correct solution.

Indeed, if the effect is to ony marginalize 'avergae white kids', then the program is flawed. But giving opportunities to those who wouldnt normally have them is also beneficial to society, and throwing out the baby wth the bath water with these programs is probably not effective for the educational level of our county as a whole.

reply to post by dolphinfan


Anyone else notice that the only groups who seem to keep going back to race is the governments?

I lost a pay raise and new job last week because of points and I'm white I told HR it didn't matter because I'm going to retire soon. She said it was great that I've managed to do that and I told her you just did it by discriminating against me. She had the deer in the headlights look and didn't say another word

Originally posted by gladtobehere
I personally dont see this as a victory. Admission should be based on merit.

Is it always the case that minorities, specifically Blacks and Hispanics by definition are at some kind of a disadvantage? Other minorities such as Asians (both Southern and Eastern) rely on academics for admission and are often the best performers, even when English is a second language.

While I understand the sentiment behind giving an opportunity to a Black or a Hispanic who comes from an underprivileged environment, I dont know that I agree with that opportunity coming at the expense of another student who's earned it.

Its a tough call but quotas and affirmative action are not the correct solution.

I think most are forgetting why they started affirmative action in the first place... Small Business, Academics, Corporations, Goverment Agencies, Colleges especially would descriminate against other races...

Yes, you can go ahead and make an arguement regarding merit, and it would be one that I agree with, but can you trust the same people that were in charge before that did discriminate?

They're still there, hiding, waiting, I know pleanty of them, and I'm Hispanic. We are no longer allowed to discriminate based on race, religion, sex ect... as you can imagine the magic word there is "Allowed". People still do it to this day, I have seen it with my own eyes...

I say that until a generation of people that do descriminate finally retire, I believe this policy should stay in place...

They just need to make applications without a sex or race box. That solves all the problems right there. This is all done on purpose. Not to give minorities a "even playing field" but to divide the country. If it isn't race warfare, its class warfare. Divide and Conquer, they know people are waking up to their BS and know they are out numbered. The sooner everyone realises this game they are playing, the sooner we all march on Washington and kick those bums out.

These days Blacks, Hispanics and Indian Pakistani Asians get a free damn ride.

Whatever happened to BEST man for the Job??

I have zero affection to the policies in place to safeguard the lazy and always crying about their rights type people who are neither qualified or earned their place in modern academics or careers.

I live near three Mexicans who on the face of things are nice people!! But who gives a crap....they were excepted into Top Tier placements based on quota filling meaning other proper deserving people dontt get in.

This is no victory. Again, the lazy racially different people get in through the lottery of Quota and not through any form of merit.

Originally posted by TheButcher23
These days Blacks, Hispanics and Indian Pakistani Asians get a free damn ride.

nonsense

second

You have two candidates. One is white, the other black. The white candidate has straight A's in school, and wants to be a doctor. The black guy has straight C's in school and wants to be a doctor. The black guy gets in because he's black. How is this:

1. Fair and equal (remember, that's why we have the Civil Rights Act..."equality for all").
2. Going to give the black guy any confidence that he can ever do anything on his own merit.
3. Going to give the white guy any reason to make something of himself knowing he can't get ahead whether he does everything right or not?

I work in a white-male dominated industry. Yet in my department alone, I work with three black guys, one Pakistani, two Koreans, and one white female. They all got here on their own merits. Why should school be any different? This was a good decision for personal responsibility.

/TOA

As a "liberal" I find the sort of liberalism very misguided.
I think it is about time that merit be allowed to exist without equivocation,
If archaic racism becomes prominent again then maybe such policies would
Be reasonable. But as it is, i think the racial crisis is better, this serves to
Draw out racial identification and the problem Of racism IMO.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


Exactly what are the socioeconomic disadvantages that confront blacks and hispanics, specifically those which don't confront asians?

Should a dominate culture/group idenity exist within a specific group generally result in lower qualifications for either college admission or employment than the dominate culture/group idenity of another, is that a socio-economic issue? No. Its a cultural issue. Guess what? Generally speaking, the attributes and behaviors that are webbed together to become the hip/hop culture are not those typically sought by employeers nor those attributes that enhance a campus environment.

Does the fact that many Asians don't buy into a popular culture that glorifies anti-social behavior exempt them from a socio-economic issue? No

Does the fact that Asian kids are far more likely (over three times as likely) to come from two parent families who take great care in supporting academics mean that they are less deserving than admission to a college? No There has been a trend in this country for decades to eliminate homework in some quarters because kids who come from homes where parents support the completion have a distinct advantage and the greater the emphasis from a grading perspective that is placed on homework, the greater the disadvantaged placed on those kids who are in families who don't focus on acedemics.

At the end of this path of logic has simply hard and fast quotas with people competing within their own racial group for a job or admission. "I'm shooting for one of the 6 open Hispanic slots". If that is what folks are looking for, lets just go there and let go of all of this dishonesty about righting wrongs, giving groups a "hand-up".

We hear the racists rant about the need for specific minority group role models. What trash. There is not a single heterogenous society on this planet where a small minority group (blacks account for 13% of the US population) has achieved anything close to what African Americans have achieved in the US. Highest levels of government, highest levels of corporate leadership, iconic status within both the entertainment and atheletic arenas. Do Asians have even close to that level of attainment within society? No. There also does not appear to be any concern from the racist elite over the lack of representation of Asians in the same areas of society. Why is that?

The entire business is racist by definition. Folks can wrap it up in tired old bromides and canned statements about righting past wrongs, countering institutional racism and the like, but nobody is buying that trash any longer.

As far as small businesses go, they should not be forced to hire anyone they don't want to hire, period. There at least used to be a right to free association in this country, yet noone seems to concerned about these policies that are essentially stealing from a small business. Why stealing? When the government forces me to do something with my money that I don't want to do, as in hire someone I would rather not hire, for what ever reason, they are stealing from me, period.

I have sat across the table from EEOC staffers and lawyers defending myself in employee discrimination lawsuits several times. It is an absolute witch hunt and quite clear that there is absolutely no real goal to ascertain the truth. I've not lost one of these cases, but it takes literally hundreds of hours to defend one

Where did this lawsuit occur? Michigan. And folks wonder why businessess are picking up and moving to Texas.

I hope one day those who support these affirmative action policies discover, as they are being wheeled into surgery, that the doctor who is about to operate on them received his medical degree ONLY because the school he had attended had to meet a quota of minority graduates.
Or perhaps the pilot of the plane he is flying on would never have gotten his job if it were not for the purpose of meeting minority quotas.
How about your court appointed lawyer or the officer who is suppose to lead you into combat? Would you really feel comfortable knowing it was court-mandated quotas that got them into their positions?
Personally I find that anyone even needs to ask these questions to be pathetic.
Equality? Try judging by merit with no regard to race.

Here is a list of the more prominent cases on Affirmitive action and it appears that the trend is moving away from support of this policy.

www.infoplease.com...

It looks like the Supreme Court is getting closer and closer to just declaring this policy unconstitutional so it will be interesting to see what their decision is this time if they revisit this issue. It's been a few years since they last ruled on this so it's probably due to come up again.

It is just as reprehensible for a white man to lose a job (or degree opportunity) based on color as it is for a black/hispanic/asian. Thought we were all the same race... HUMAN. Merits>skin color!

reply to post by FoxStriker

Originally posted by FoxStriker
We are no longer allowed to discriminate based on race, religion, sex ect... as you can imagine the magic word there is "Allowed". People still do it to this day, I have seen it with my own eyes...

Well thats the whole point. If someone wants to discriminate, its going to happen regardless of any laws in place. In the US, if someone wants to succeed, its very difficult not to, regardless of a person's ethnicity.

I see minorities from all over come to the US and become very successful, many dont even speak proper English... Some are small business owners others are doctors, engineers or have degrees in IT. There's no "special pass" for these people. They arent successful because of anti-discrimination laws.

Furthermore, affirmative action and quotas have an opposite effect. Will you goto a professional who you think may be a product of a quota system? Many people I know will simply choose the White or Asian doctor for exactly this reason.