Kinja reply list

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E=MC HammeredMichael Harriot
8/09/17 2:54pm
When people argue against the inherent biases in standardized tests, I like to share a brief story from a friend of mine who taught in a school in a low-income, almost 100 percent Hispanic neighborhood:
One of the state tests they were administered (this was elementary school...I think 3rd grade) asked them to write out the steps required to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Of her class of 23, none of them had ever eaten, let alone made, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
But no, certainly no inherent bias. Just a bunch of morons who couldn’t explain a relatively easy three-step process.
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  xperimentalE=MC Hammered
  8/09/17 3:04pm
  3 steps?! you wizard!
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  E=MC Hammeredxperimental
  8/09/17 3:07pm
  I guess you could make it a million steps depending on how much detail you want to get into and how far back you go (“If you wish to make a PB&J from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”), but from a 7 or 8-year-old I’d probably accept:
  1. Get bread.
  2. Put peanut butter and jelly on bread.
  3. Put bread together
  as a very basic explanation.
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SHoughMichael Harriot
8/09/17 1:33pm
53% of white women voted for Trump and they will be devastated if affirmative action is dismantled. I don’t mean emotionally, I mean that they disproportionately benefit from AA.
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  NoGodsNoMastersNoBSSHough
  8/09/17 2:02pm
  Very true.
  I blame those entitled, ignorant white girls who sued because they did not get into their college of choice. Instead of believing it was because their grades sucked or they really aren’t that special, they chose to go after AA. Until any of us who are white understand what it is truly like to be oppressed and considered less than, we need to shut the fuck up, stop thinking we are better than everyone and once and for all LISTEN.
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  StartingOverAgainSHough
  8/09/17 2:10pm
  Assuming 100% of educated white women benefit from it (which isn’t reasonable but for simplicity’s sake let’s go with it) that number is probably closer to 45%.
  http://www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls
  Point being that when it comes to AA some people’s attitudes have a lot more to do with thinking “I don’t care about education so who gives a fuck about why colleges let people in or not”. That’s especially true if they falsely think it involves tax dollars subsidizing tuition payments.
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MattMichael Harriot
8/09/17 3:43pm
“Research findings that directly isolate race as a factor in the fairness of individual SAT questions have, of late, been few.” From the article cited by the author. 1. No difference in Math scores based on race. 2. Verbal difference based on being around white people who speak like white people? That is apparently the difference in verbal scores based on race between different races with the same economic background. Isn’t this insulting? Language is language. It has rules, everyone learns grammar rules in school. The SAT verbal section is not based on “white” English. That simply does not exist. Its just English and everyone can and should be expected to be able to understand it and use its rules.
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  BitterSweetMatt
  8/09/17 4:47pm
  Of course. And the reason kinja says I’m spelling colour, humour and flavour incorrectly is because I am, right?
  There are a variety of English language dialects in the US (and the rest of the world) and we learn verbal language before written - which can affect our written comprehension. Not to mention optional grammar like the oxford comma.
  Plus, the ability to learn a bunch of illogical grammar rules is no indicator of anyone’s ability to say ... understand physics, or create amazing art, or ... pretty much anything more important than passing a grade school test.
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  MattBitterSweet
  8/09/17 4:50pm
  I never said it was an intelligence test. Its an aptitude test, and it does evidence aptitude for college so it is not a garbage test.
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TrumpsTinyHandsMichael Harriot
8/09/17 2:04pm
An administrator at Jared Kushner’s private school was shocked that he got into Harvard, describing him as a lackluster student. Coincidentally, Jared’s daddy gave Harvard a multi-million dollar gift.
When legacy admissions, and wealthy donor admissions are a thing of the past, and campus demographics have reached approximate parity with general population demographics, then maybe let’s talk about whether or not to continue AA. Until then, they can STFU about “reverse discrimination” or whatever the lie of the day is.
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  iamjustjulesTrumpsTinyHands
  8/09/17 2:08pm
  Sometimes it cuts the other way. A guy from my high school was supposed to go to Princeton on a legacy admission. Good athlete, mediocre student, but his parents donated tons of art and money until Jr. didn’t get accepted.
  He went to Big State somewhere west of New Jersey, but those alumni donations dried up quickly.
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  crouching tigerTrumpsTinyHands
  8/09/17 5:21pm
  If affirmative action is dismantled, the same should definitely go for legacy admissions. And especially for the Kusheresque bribery situations.
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Cali4lifeMichael Harriot
8/09/17 2:38pm
Everything White People Think ~~About Affirmative Action~~ Is Wrong
I’m a bit salty today.
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  HootyrigzCali4life
  8/09/17 2:46pm
  I endorse this new title 100%
  Sincerely,3
  30 year old white male
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  "Hachi"Cali4life
  8/10/17 7:27am
  Accurate
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IniquityDenMotherMichael Harriot
8/10/17 12:51pm
I made a friend the first week my freshman year at college - Rob was a Black/Native American pre-med major who lived in my “brother” dorm, and we met at a dorm-sponsored “getting to know your neighbors” thing. We bonded quickly because we were both declared science majors as freshman - I was Geology to his Biology/pre-med, as noted on our name-tags - in an ocean of kids who had no idea what they wanted to do. Weirdly, we kept ending up in the same co-ed dorms for the next three years, so we both were always checking in with each other on our road-to-grad-school grind.
So when he got into med school, I was incredibly excited for him - the first time I had ever met him he had pretty much been glowing as he told me how he had always wanted to be a doctor to help people. So I thought it was wonderful he had gotten into his first choice after busting his ass for the past four years, and I didn’t think anyone deserved it more. He admitted to me that he had some doubts, though, because apparently when he’d shared his good news within his department, some asshole had said, “well yeah, of course YOU were always gonna get in. You’re Black and Indian - you fit two affirmative action slots with one applicant. ” So Rob kept saying, “I don’t feel like I deserve this - I just got in because I fit a quota.”
That made me SO fucking angry on his behalf. I assured him that no medical school was going to take a student whose qualifications weren’t up to snuff, just to “fit a quota,” and reminded him of all of his actual qualifications that made him a logical fit for med school (which included some above-and-beyond volunteer stuff during his summers that would have been catnip to an admissions committee). The asshole was indulging in the sourest of grapes, and Rob shouldn’t let it take away from his acceptance the tiniest bit. He’d earned his admission, fair and square.
(I just looked it up since I lost track of him after graduation - Rob is an actively practicing specialist physician today, so quite obviously, he had what it took to get through med school, an internship, and a hefty residency program.)
So fuck people who think minorities are taking “their” spots. It was never “your” spot, even though you wanted to think so.
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  Melanin MonroeIniquityDenMother
  8/10/17 2:22pm
  That actually happened to me too, it was my (white) ex who said it though. We both applied to Berkeley at the same time, I got in and he didn’t. It was his dream school so he was naturally upset, and I didn’t want to rub it in his face so I hesitated to even tell him. But when I did he said, “of course you got in, you’re Black and a woman”, as if we didn’t have the same qualifications. He didn’t even consider the possibility that aspects of my application were better or stronger than his. Funny thing is, due to prop 209 public universities in California are not allowed to use affirmative action criteria in their admissions process, haven’t been for a long time. It doesn’t really matter whether you benefit from it or not, people are going to assume you did anyway, especially if you’re Black. And they won’t be shy about telling you or anyone else how undeserving you are, whether it’s actually true or not.
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  IniquityDenMotherMelanin Monroe
  8/10/17 3:42pm
  I hope that’s one of the reasons he’s your ex. Ugh.
  ETA - and, um...you can’t get into MIT or CalTech if you’re Asian? That’s an interesting position...
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BeardedKiltMichael Harriot
8/09/17 2:09pm
“But you have to admit, black people do have an advantage over whites. Don’t they get to go to college for free?”
Is this a thing other white people believe?
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  helgaperezBeardedKilt
  8/09/17 8:37pm
  It is, unfortunately, something a lot of other white people believe.
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  SkitchBeardedKilt
  8/09/17 9:07pm
  Abso-fucking-lutely
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hillratMichael Harriot
8/10/17 9:20am
You wouldn’t believe what white people think about affirmative action. I was out with a friend a few years ago and we were talking about my work situation, it was budget time and things were looking dicey for our contract. I stated that I thought I was going to be OK because I dealt with a regulatory requirement for the agency I was contracted to at the time. He interpreted this to mean and then asked to confirm,”Does this mean you can’t get laid off because you’re black?”
Let’s just think about that for a minute. This dumb motherfucker actually thought that being Black was some sort of magic talisman that provides job security when the opposite is actually true. I got fired from a job for going to the Million Man march. I’ve been fired from a job where I was clearly the best person (out like 40-60 people) doing the job because I had the nerve to ask to be brought on full time and I was a temp.
After my eyes got done rolling back in my head like a slot machine for about 30 seconds, I patiently explained that I was the SME (subject matter expert) on a regulatory requirement and a big part of my work was helping people not do shit that would get the agency sued. His next question was,”They have a contractor doing that?” Yes, yes they did and when the guidance that I wrote proved to be thorough and easy enough to follow that anyone that could read was able to follow it, then they cut my spot the next year.
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Thotline Bling: black girl supremacyMichael Harriot
8/09/17 1:50pm
Just based on the title,
Bravo, Michael Harriot. Bravo.
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weAREallONEMichael Harriot
8/09/17 2:25pm
Affirmative Action is nonsense. The best qualified person should get the spot every single time, full stop.
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  Belve10weAREallONE
  8/09/17 2:49pm
  I, a Person of Color, agree with you. Best qualified gets the job. The issue is that this very sentiment was NOT adhered to - ever. It’s why you still see so many instances of ‘the 1st this or that to do something’.
  As the article says, we wouldn’t care if you harbored ill will toward us and hated us in the core of your being—so long as you treated us equally. This is very widely held sentiment in most Black discussions. Hate me all you want but give me the opportunity to succeed or fail without a) judging me because of my color and b) holding my results against the next person that shares more similarities with me than you.
  
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  weAREallONEBelve10
  8/09/17 3:34pm
  I don’t think anyone hates you, but you ought not get a slot (as a student, or as an employee) that you didn’t earn by the merits of your accomplishments.
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Everything White People Think About Affirmative Action Is Wrong