Reply #114: Yes [View All]

[MellowDem]

But not all white men are getting the easiest ride. The people getting the easiest ride by far is the rich, way more than whites, or even white men. Either way, we aren't going to solve racism and sexism with racial or gender-based affirmative action, we will only inflame it. And we will not redress inequalities with it either.

I have a feeling that gender inequality is closing up and will close up much faster than racial inequalities, and here is why. Look at the percentages of those who succeed in public education, of those who go on to college and graduate. Women are dominating in both by far. But it is a fairly recent phenomenon, with these women still only in their 20s and 30s. But we'll see, in the next 20 years, and with 20 more years of similar percentages, the gender inequality disappear (and perhaps reverse!) And why is it that women succeed so much more in academia? It's not affirmative action, that's for sure. It's a whole slew of other factors. Women are now the majority in college more often than not. Men are a minority.

Once again, we can't take such a broad theory of "white privilege" which does not apply in so many cases to form a policy of racial discrimination against white men that is somehow supposed to bring about racial and gender equity. It's economics, by far, always has been and always will be. Blacks living in the middle class have much much more privilege than whites living in poverty, whereas the difference in privilege between blacks and whites in poverty is practically non-existent and can go either way depending on circumstances. Put a poor white person in a black inner city or put a poor black person in a small, rural, poor white community. Then you may have differences in privilege, though not necessarily, and nowhere near as much as between the poor and the middle class, much less the rich.

We aren't focusing on the source of the inequity and are inflaming racial and gender division while we are at it with race and gender based affirmative action.