Affirmative Action

[MaLikah]

I am a former-Canadian who's been living in the States for the past couple of years. Now, for all you Canadians, I'm sure you can agree with me when I say, we know zilch about African American/Canadian history because they skipped that portion of our curriculum. What we also don't hear alot of in that part of the world is affirmative action. Recently, I was doing some research for an organization that I am apart of when I came across some interesting information.

 

In California and Washington, they've pretty much gotten rid of affirmative action. Now, they have become the first 2 states to remove consideration of sex and race in the public sect. This has undoubtedly affected minorities in many areas, such as public contracting, housing, employment, and college/university admissions.

 

As a university student myself, and an pro-affirmative action individual, I was shocked to find out about this. Needless to say, you definitely won't catch me in either states, but I wanted to know how you nomads felt about this issue. I know some Somalis don't feel they will be affected by this much, since they believe it was enacted for just African-Americans (in fact,it was for all minorities).

 

So nomads, speak your minds. I want to know how you really think about the situation. Do you think this will affect you at all? How? And what will this do to the nation?

[Reality Check]

hell yeah it will affect us. Directly or indirectly. Some of you may even think you are not included in the group. But you are because now companies don't have quotas to fullfill and no incentive to hire a minority or a female. If they want an all white company..they are going to have one.

 

So if you are black and you are woman in Cali and DC..well..much luck to yah!

[Vanquish_V12]

placing a bandaid on a tumor is useless, do u really wanna live in place where the governing body has order instituitions to give equal opportunities. i hope we r able to see the bigger picture here.

[Captivating_SouL]

Undoubtly it will have an affect on all minorities (yes including somalis) although, some of us like to think otherwise. Either be for it and learn the outcomes of (A.A)or isolate yourself from being more knowledgable of what's going on in your society. Its your CALL.

 

Quite frankly am tired of somali people always thinking A.A is to help African Americans and not the rest of the minorities. Think about it, had A.A not exist where would we (somalis) be...?

 

Walaahi am taking African Studies Class this semester and each and every time am bombarded with insights of things i' had not even came to realization to. So getting back to my question...."had not been the routes African Americans took, how would we have suffered in this country"...had it not been for all those dramatic leaders as Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Harriett Tubman?

 

In my opinion, they fled the country for us. They along with others got ride of racism, fought for equallbrium state, school, and society etc. All am trying to state here is; what those people did, we should appreicate because had they not stepped up...we would of been lynched day in and day out for talking back, challenging white supermacy etc.SO THINK B4 YOU REACT.

 

So let us be knoweldge (somalis) walaahi each and everytime i enter chat forums and see people being igrorant is sad and makes me think...(why are they close minded)

[Changed]

i wanted to go to UCLA for graduate school and now i wont thanks to u malikah

 

am all for affirmative action , and yeah ama have to agree with you girls that we somalis consider ourselves to be different from them and i think what we somalis dont undertand is that most of the whites wont look at our difference's , we are black to all of them and negro's to some of them, on the other hand afro american dont consider us to be one of them and they are actually pridefull :eek: , when i lived in louisiana i had a teacher (black) tell me i wasnt black, and funny part was she was mix i was actually darker than her , lol...and have u seen them say " u are african , well u dont look like that image i saw on tv"(they basically be-little the africans) to be honest we R two different species with different culture (and we each have an image of the other build in our heads) ..am all for affirmative action because the white dont know the difference

[Resonance]

Originally posted by miz-unique:

..am all for affirmative action because the white dont know the difference

And if they did? If the whites knew the difference between a Cushite and a Negro, what then? You wouldn't qualify for AA as a Somali? Cause you wouldn't need it if they REALLY knew how different u were from the rest? It's OK to be classified with them just this once cause it suits us?

 

Affirmative action is about bridging gaps and emphasising the similarities. What one man can do, another can do too. We r not different species, miz-unique. We r one species. Cultural differences do not justify inequality.

 

MaLikah, I don't know how well AA works in reality but there is atleast a pretence at equality in the US. Maybe when it works, it works really well and when it fails it does so spectacularly. I don't know- never had the experience. Others may let u know.

 

As for California, now that it is in the hands of a woman-groping, Hitler-loving (allegedly) Terminator, the future is looking not so affirmative. Prepare for some True Lies.

[Changed]

^^ .lol..and when i said the whites dont know the difference my intention was to inform the somalis how lucky are to get affirmative action, we didnt work hard for it , the A.A worked they asses off to get it namean from being a slave to having the right of the white is not an easy thing to obtain namean, i see it was easy for u to make the wrong interpretation of my statement it is true white dont know the difference , and the fact that am for it is another case

[Macalin]

You lots have to see the bigger picture here.

 

affarmative action labels someone there are other ways of doing things..the issue isnt abt affarmatoive action

[Raxmah]

affirmative action is so emotionally and politically charged, I think it has a positive and negative aspects to it. I wouldn't like to get excepted to school becuase am black, but it's creating diversity in schools and is benefitting under previleged students. Its just based on pride, if u want to get accepted to school b/c ur black is not going to benefit u, its ur brains that is going to take u far, as for the under representd ppl in like in health field, it very important for minorities to get involved and that is the only reason why i might agree with AA, but it gets on my last nerves, when ppl are so proud of themselves, bc they got excepted to a school bc they are black. As for somalis, they would definetly benefit from affirmative action, it not only for african americans its for minorities.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

As a Somali person, this is how I look at Affirmative action.

 

Case study: two females, each is age 24, one is Somali, the other is a white girl. They are both Sociology graduates and their academic score is the same. They are both applying for an office position at a small Software company.

 

Company grading policy:

10 marks for academic credentials

10 marks for previous job experience,

9 marks for interview performance.

1 mark for "affirmative action".

You need to get at least 20/30 in order to work for this company.

 

Somali girl's Performance:

- 10/10 for education

- 9/10 for previous job experience

- 4/9 for the interview because she didn't click with the interviewer. The interviewer was a white lady. The Somali girl was wearing the hijab. The interviewer asked her something about baseball and the Somali girl couldn't answer. She also had a Somali accent but spoke fluently.

- 1/1 for just being black.

 

Total Score: 24/30

 

 

The White girl's performance:

- 10/10 for education

- 5/10 for previous job experience because.

- 8/9 for the interview. The lady really liked her.

- 0/1 for the "affirmative action" score.

 

Total score: 23/30

 

 

Final Result: the Somali girl gets the job. This is an approximate formula used by some companies.

[raula]

So what's your point LST?

Indeed there are many criterias for admitting or picking a qualified candidate for the specific institution whether it is school/company or a social organization. However..lookig at the historical background regarding inequalities, A.A. is essential and still will be effective in determining higher black socioeconomical status, and to level the playing field that resulted from racism discorse. Of course, to think that a black person is hired/admitted to accredited schools or companies just coz they are black is unethical, however, they are many factors that come underplay.

As one of my professor put it.."racism is sound and fervent"...And definately we somalis fall into that category, if not even worse. Therefore, A.A. might not benefit one directly but eventually pulls up the life-standards of minorities in higher education, hence socio-economic status.

[Rokko]

libaax-sanka, i do concur with your allusion that A.A benefits us. Specially when it is a "tie-breaker".

 

On the point system, I remember a similar point system used by some universities na'mean. Michigan was using the point system before the supreme court rejected it. What I didn't understand is how the supreme court said affirmative action must continue but the "point system" the university was using is unfair. It is like saying ... I don't eat pork but I enjoy its soup. A.A is either right or wrong na'mean.

 

word

[MaLikah]

Wow..I didnt think this issue would get this many response but I'm glad to see Somalis taking interest. It affects us just as much as anybody else.

 

To Resonance:

 

"MaLikah, I don't know how well AA works in reality but there is atleast a pretence at equality in the US. Maybe when it works, it works really well and when it fails it does so spectacularly. I don't know- never had the experience. Others may let u know"

 

I have to agree, I dont know how well A.A has been working, but I think we wouldnt nearly have as many black professionals today without it. Maybe we'd have had more if they had based it on hard-work alone, who knows? We weren't given the chance to find out. For example, at the UC of Berkeley, the minorities enrollment there dropped by over 100. When the incoming class is about 3,500 and only 300 are minorities..you cant afford to lose a 100. Thats just how I see it.

 

Miz-Unique:

 

Lol..damn , if you get into UCLA, hop on that bus girl. I just wouldnt work there and let the state benefit from my expertise in my field, I'll take it where its appreciated and recognized.

 

Libaax ST:

 

True tru brotha, the number of points given to race is so small, it barely makes a difference. At the UofMichigan, its given about 10-20 points (geared towards minorities obviously), but so is Legacy (having parents or grandparents that atteneded that universities-which is directly geared towards whites). Whos somali grandfather attended Yale? Cmon now-who are they fooling? The media will portray the "favors" society is doing minorities and forget to mention the more subtle white favored systems. God Bless America! (ha)

[Dhimbil]

Hey folks

 

I don't have a problem with Affirmative Action it self perse but the way it is set up. I don't think this program is effective as it should be or as succesfull. They need to overhaul the program, make radical changes than would it have a chance to make a difference. Giving points because you're black doesn't do anything for the poor and the vulnerable. Thats why most who benefit from it now are rich conservative blacks and other minorities. Points should be based on more than one criteria, like economical status, family(1st generation?), cultural background etc.

 

The other problem is once minorities graduate, they are not getting jobs/salaries they deserve. A big corporation hires one minority and that satisfies their affirmative action requirement so they quit hiring other minority and return business as usuall of loading whites to all other openings. On this front, the program need to be expanded as to require companies to hire more or equel to the percentage of customers/clients the company has from certain groub or background. For example, if 20 percent of company customers/clients are blacks than their workforce should be by the same amount or close to.

 

Thats the only way to make sure, we won't need Affirmative Action in 30-50yrs from now. Or they can keep it the way it is and allow whites to merely satisfy us at minimum and wonder why we still make up majority of the ghettos. if they(gov.) are unwilling to make the changes to make it more affective, they should just take it away. They just want to seem like they are doing something to correct historical injustices, but all they are doing is really nothing :mad: .

[MaLikah]

Illmatic- I totally agree with where you're coming from. This system can definitely be improved, and I think eventually we would have gotten there. Affirmative action allows companies to fill a certain quota and when they do, they are free to hire as many whites as they please. Forget that many more blacks may be qualified..all that matters is that they've filled the quote. I dont think this would have lasted long, but this is definitely a step back for the struggle.