Should how you are treated depend on your ancestry?

[Boojatta]

[Jmaxfie1]

1. Do you mean should we end Affirmative Action?...

Not sure the purpose/context of this poll?

[Boojatta]

4. Isn't affirmative action an example of government policy that is designed to

reduce the extent to which the treatment people receive depends on their ancestry?

Obviously government policy isn't the sole determinant of how people are treated.

[Jmaxfie1]

5. In that case, I'd probably say yes, with some riders...

like you were saying, a policy can judge ancestry, if its purpose is to remove disadvantages caused by that ancestry.

[Boojatta]

28. Please tell me a bit about the riders you have in mind.

[Scuba]

2. One doesn't choose the have spina bifida, but it should effect how we treat that individual. n/t

[Boojatta]

6. People don't choose to have birth defects.

How they are treated by biochemical reality may nevertheless depend on birth defects. That's a problem precisely because the treatment they receive should depend on their choices, and being born with spina bifida isn't a choice.

I don't think that you have revealed any disagreement on principles. What you have shown is that the principle needs to be expressed in very simple and clear terms before it is applied.

[Boojatta]

7. If it's possible for one person to have Spina Bifida ...

while another person doesn't, even though they have the same biological parents, then inherited genes may contribute to the development of Spina Bifida, but ancestry alone isn't enough to determine whether or not someone will have Spina Bifida.

[gateley]

3. What a strange question -- what prompted it? nt

[BOG PERSON]

8. obviously, yes

until the institutions of race, caste and family are abolished, then institutionalizing equality does not go far enough in leveling things out for those who lack the advantages that come from belonging to a particular race, caste or family.

[Nye Bevan]

10. Is it really an advantage of race? Or an economic advantage?

Ten years from now, will a poor white 18 year old from Mississippi have an automatic advantage over Obama's daughter?

[Boojatta]

11. President Obama had two daughters when they were most recently

counted for official purposes.

[Jmaxfie1]

12. No, I have no problem with race being a factor in say school admitions...

but your right, it should not be the only factor. The poor white kid from MS is clearly more disadvantaged than Obama's daughters, so I would give preference to him.

[Boojatta]

9. Kick to encourage expression of opinions.

[Moondog]

13. Nope. That is, by any definition, discrimination.

[Boojatta]

14. Kick

[kentauros]

15. My ancestry is Homo Sapiens

so I expect to be treated like a Human :D

[Boojatta]

16. If you trace it back more, you might find sub-humans in your ancestry, so ...

[kentauros]

17. In that case

I could also take it back to the slime in the ocean, and would then be in my rights to treat everyone else like scum :P

[Bluenorthwest]

18. According to many, how you are treated should depend on

your sexual orientation. They have Sacraments to defend and all.

[Zorra]

19. "Choices" is a very ambiguous qualifier, and how people are treated

according to their choices is often subject to the socio-political condition of the society they live in.

If I had lived in Nazi Germany and spoke out against Hitler, I would probably have been arrested and possibly executed for my choices.

That's definitely not how I would want to be treated because of my choices.

[Boojatta]

22. Analogy: if there were no murder, there might nevertheless be torture.

Being tortured day and night for months or years would be extremely unpleasant. However, we cannot conclude from this that there's no reason for a prohibition against murder. We can merely conclude that a prohibition against murder is a beginning and isn't adequate to serve as a complete body of laws.

[Zorra]

24. I don't understand. How does that analogy relate to what I posted? nt

[Boojatta]

25. Here ...

If I had lived in Nazi Germany and spoke out against Hitler, I would probably have been arrested and possibly executed for my choices.

Isn't your point that even if how you are treated depends on your choices, there's nevertheless no guarantee of justice for you?

Assume that people obey the principle that how you are treated should be based on your choices rather than on things that you have no control over. We cannot conclude that there will be justice. It's not enough of a restriction on human behavior. There are additional principles, and to establish justice requires respect for not only the one principle stated above, but also for those other principles.

[Zorra]

26. Thanks. Better. I agree. nt

[formernaderite]

20. well I'm an old hippie

I guess the way I look now, some might think I'm a biker lol

I went through a period of looking normal, had a "professional" job.... didn't care for the lifestyle, or the way I was treated.

I like being ignored now or disdained...

But that's my freedom of choice, some are not so lucky.

[Aerows]

21. IMHO, this is a really loaded question

I don't think it was the OP's intent, it just ended up being that way due to the way the question was asked, and the choices available.

[Boojatta]

23. Please explain what is loaded about it.

[Cid_B]

30. People see what they want to see in it...

Some see affirmative action...

For some reason I thought about a thread from a few days ago that was bashing one of the Bush twins.

[Jmaxfie1]

29. It is kind of loaded, it doesn't give enough qualifiers, having talked to the....

OP, we are on the same page. That's the problem with pols, having done some myself, its hard to account for every evidentiality.

[Boojatta]

27. Kick