tagged w/ Affirmative Action
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WASHINGTON - Presidential challenger John McCain said Sunday that he supports a proposed ballot initiative in his home state that would prohibit affirmative action policies from state and local governments. A decade ago, he called a similar effort "divisive."
Over the years, McCain has consistently voiced his opposition to hiring quotas based on race. He has supported affirmative action in limited cases. For example, he voted to maintain a program that encourages the awarding of 10 percent of spending on highway construction to women and minorities.
McCain was asked specifically Sunday whether he supported an effort to get a referendum on the ballot in Arizona that would "do away with affirmative action."
"Yes, I do," said McCain in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
The Republican senator quickly added that he had not seen the details of the proposal. "But I've always opposed quotas."
In 1998, a resolution pending in the state Legislature would ask Arizona voters to eliminate most preferences based on race, gender, color or ethnic origin. McCain warned against using ballot proposals to outlaw quotas or racial preferences.
"Rather than engage in divisive ballot initiatives, we must have a dialogue and cooperation and mutual efforts together to provide for every child in America to fulfill their expectations," McCain said.
The 1998 story by the Associated Press said McCain was speaking to a handful of Hispanic leaders in Washington. In his comments, he stopped short of directly criticizing the resolution pending in Arizona.
A spokesman for the McCain campaign said in a statement that the senator has always opposed hiring quotes based on race.
He believes that regardless of race, ethnicity or gender, the law should be equally applied," the spokesman, Tucker Bounds, said. "He has long stood for the protection of civil rights and equal opportunity for all Americans."
For the current effort in Arizona, supporters of the state constitutional amendment banning affirmative action programs have met the filing deadline to get the measure on the November ballot.
The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative filed 334,658 signatures with the Secretary of State's office Thursday, surpassing the necessary number by more than 100,000. State officials are trying to verify that enough signatures are valid to get the initiative on the ballot.
The application for the referendum petition said the proposal would amend the state constitution to prohibit preferential treatment or discrimination by state government, state universities, school districts, counties and local governments to any individual based on race, sex, ethnicity or national origin.
Democratic challenger Barack Obama said he is a "strong supporter of affirmative action when properly structured so that it is not just a quota."
He said he believes a university or college should be able to take into account race as well as economic class and hardship when making assessments about admissions.
Obama said McCain flipped on the issue of putting affirmative action bans on the ballot.
"These are not designed to solve a big problem, but they're all too often designed to drive a wedge between people," Obama said.
On that point, McCain's spokesman did not directly answer whether McCain had changed his views about the wisdom of putting bans on affirmative action policies to the voters.
Bounds said that Obama himself Sunday said that affirmative action is not a long-term solution, but has also said he's a firm believer in affirmative action.
WASHINGTON - Presidential challenger John McCain said Sunday that he supports a... more
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If girls were once excluded because they somehow weren't good enough, they now are rejected because they're too good. Or at least they are so good, compared with boys, that admissions committees at some private colleges have problems managing a balanced freshman class.
Roughly 58% of undergraduates nationally are female, and the girl-boy ratio will probably tip past 60-40 in a few years. The divide is even worse for black males, who are outnumbered on campus by black females 2 to 1.
While educators debate whether there is a "boy crisis" that warrants a wholesale change in how to teach, colleges are quietly stripping the pastels from brochures and launching Xbox tournaments to try to close the gap in the quality and quantity of boys applying.If girls were once excluded because they somehow weren't good enough, they now... more
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The complex diversity of human ethnicity is a testament to human adaptability and resilience. Our libraries and schools are now filled with volumes written about unique and independent social systems that have coexisted for millennia throughout the planet. There are countless examples to choose from that run the gamut of human kin group possibilities?some egalitarian, some totalitarian. There is not one set standard, from an anthropological or sociological point of view that is constant with regard to marriage, or what constitutes a kin group. There are many complex individual psychological processes at work that cause people to bond and form into groups and the most commonly recognized and studied unit is the family. However, for many people at different times in human history, family has meant different things. What most anthropologists and sociologists do agree on is that in every society each individual has a role to play in the social construction of reality. However the situation that the public at large deals with on a daily basis is how to clearly identify individual roles and how to mediate conflicts arising from everyone?s individual pursuit of happiness; where these conflicts are most evident are in the arenas of gender, class, and ethnicity.
Quote from essay by JubalThe complex diversity of human ethnicity is a testament to human adaptability and... more
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jubal
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added this
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4 years ago
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In this article from the National Review, Roger Clegg claims that there's optimism for conservative culture warriors. He stakes a lot on victories in three fronts: Affirmative action, immigration, and illegitimate child birth.
Did I miss something? Did Leftists suddenly become pro-illegitimate child? What is this guy smoking?
And where does he pull this stat: "1 in 4 non-Hispanic white children are born from parents out of wedlock"? Is that true?In this article from the National Review, Roger Clegg claims that there's... more
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a 15-cent price tag stuck to his Yale law degree, blaming the school's affirmative action policies in the 1970s for his difficulty finding a job after he graduated.
Some of his black classmates say Thomas needs to get over his grudge because Yale opened the door to extraordinary opportunities.
Thomas' new autobiography, "My Grandfather's Son," shows how the second black justice on the Supreme Court came to oppose affirmative action after his law school experience. He was one of about 10 blacks in a class of 160 who had arrived at Yale after the unrest of the 1960s, which culminated in a Black Panther Party trial in New Haven that nearly caused a large-scale riot.U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a 15-cent price tag stuck to his Yale... more
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Students want diverse campuses. Staff want diverse campuses. Why are the laws making it difficult to turn this into a reality? Students want diverse campuses. Staff want diverse campuses. Why are the laws making... more
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adavis
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added this
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4 years ago
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