And there are other ways. You punish people who are racist and you acknowledge that as the reason for their punishment, but you help people based on their situation. If they happened to be in that situation because of previous racism, that in no way has to be taken into account in how they are treated going forward to help their current situation.
Sorry, but as soon as you use race as a means to classify another person for a decision you need to make, whether your intentions are good or not, you are being racist, and you are perpetuating the line of thought that is at the root of the problem.
Ok, if you want to play semantic games then let's play semantic games. If you think any policy based on race is racism I will for the sake of the argument accept that weird definition and say that the racist AA policy is super awesome and that I full-heartedly support that racism. I'm a racist for AA!
Obviously not every policy based on race is racist, but affirmative action does advance a particular set of races. Call it whatever you want, but I think what the above poster has said is that to advance one race is to handicap another.
I'd like to point out that affirmative action directly leads to more racism. I've heard many racists assume that affirmative action is the sole reason someone (is in college|has that government job|got that scholarship).
Agreed. This is the Achilles Heel of affirmative action. It actually undermines the achievements of the favored group. For instance, many people believe that Obama would not be president if he were not half black. How accurate that belief is is certainly open to question, but it's not racist to think so.
In any case, according to this research, Obama's first term didn't improve racist attitudes in America.
Actually, I am saying exactly that - although I realize it may be unpopular. I don't believe that there is "good racism" be it AA or any other program. Just because you think you are helping people out based on the color of their skin, doesn't mean you are. In fact I think you are causing more harm than good by perpetuating this line of thinking that race is something to be considered as a means to discriminate.
Ideally I'd just like to see a society where race is hardly ever even talked about. It should be as significant as hair color (as another commenter mentioned). We won't get to that point if decisions are made based on race. As soon as you do that, then others will do it. And race will never cease to be a discriminating factor in human relations.
I hope you realise that not all black people are decendents from slaves and that not all white people are decendents of slave owners. And a hint: there are also other races beside whites and blacks.
AA is not reparations, it tries to correct for existing racism.