Exactly. If a minority group are not getting into certain universities, first check whether it's because those universities are bigots or because that minority tend to have lower academic grades. If the latter, fix that problem, don't just impose a quota so they go to a university where they can't cope with the work.
And what if the lower grades are because of endemic racism in schools, which is in part because most of the teachers are white, which is because only white people applied for the jobs, because only white people had teaching degrees?
Or what if the lower grades are because the kids don't have as much homework support, because the father's in prison on account of a racist law enforcement and judicial system, and the mother is working a low-wage job as many hours as she can, because she doesn't have a degree...
"Root cause" is over-simplifying, I think. It's all cyclical and intertwined, and you have to break that somehow. Like when I'm untangling a ball of yarn... sometimes you just have to break out the scissors and say "I'd really rather not break the yarn, but sometimes you just have to do it to get it untangled."
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Date: 2009-07-01 02:00 am (UTC)And what if the lower grades are because of endemic racism in schools, which is in part because most of the teachers are white, which is because only white people applied for the jobs, because only white people had teaching degrees?
Or what if the lower grades are because the kids don't have as much homework support, because the father's in prison on account of a racist law enforcement and judicial system, and the mother is working a low-wage job as many hours as she can, because she doesn't have a degree...
"Root cause" is over-simplifying, I think. It's all cyclical and intertwined, and you have to break that somehow. Like when I'm untangling a ball of yarn... sometimes you just have to break out the scissors and say "I'd really rather not break the yarn, but sometimes you just have to do it to get it untangled."