Freedom: no more, no less. [LWN.net]

Freedom: no more, no less.

Posted Jan 17, 2012 2:53 UTC (Tue) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
In reply to: Freedom: no more, no less. by blujay
Parent article: An update on the Ada Initiative

Affirmative Action is hypocritical and wrong.

Affirmative action is not hypocritical. The proponents of affirmative action are pressing consistent values: they want equality. They believe some immediate inequality is necessary to gain a broader long term equality. I'm not an expert on the sociology myself, and you may very well believe it doesn't work, or even that long term equality isn't valuable enough to forsake immediate case-by-case equality, but if you think support of affirmative action is hypocritical, you probably just haven't listened to what supporters are saying.

Is a doctor hypocritical when he says he wants to ease suffering and then goes and gives a patient a painful lumbar puncture?

Incidentally, I don't hear much argument for affirmative action any more. Affirmative action is about fairness, and the racial etc. preferences being pushed these days are instead about diversity. Diversity is the idea that you get women (or whatever) into your company not to be fair to women, but because your company is better off with a mix.

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Freedom: no more, no less.

Posted Jan 19, 2012 21:27 UTC (Thu) by fuhchee (subscriber, #40059) [Link]

"Diversity is the idea that you get women (or whatever) into your company not to be fair to women, but because your company is better off with a mix."

Or perhaps "diversity" is a new politically correct term to replace the old "affirmative action" one.

Freedom: no more, no less.

Posted Jan 19, 2012 21:48 UTC (Thu) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

Or perhaps "diversity" is a new politically correct term to replace the old "affirmative action" one.

It may be a more politically correct concept to justify the same actions, but it is anything but a drop-in replacement term. If you listen to the reasons people give for pursuing "diversity," you hear entirely different words from what you heard to explain "equal opportunity" and "affirmative action."