The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Bush’s Personal Aide To Enroll at Business School:
“A 26-year-old college dropout who carries President Bush’s breath mints and makes him peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches will follow in his boss’s footsteps this fall when he enrolls at Harvard Business School (HBS). “
After reading this article, I was a bit dumbstruck for adequate words. However, my good friend Taalib was not so afflicted:
I don’t wanna hear a damn thing about how Affirmative Action “let’s in” unqualified blacks and trumps qualified whites. People accept who they wanna if they have the power. Former HBSers should be in an uproar!
T (“Merit is still worth something to me,” DA!)
Mugs,
I am against unmerited preferential treatment which is /= Affirmative Action. As I understand it Affirmative Action is supposed to actively seek underrepresented minorities for recruitment to positions historically occupied by whites. Once they have been sought, a comprehensive, comparative review of qualifications should be conducted to the ends of producing a more diverse student (or employee) body.
Some people misuse the title Affirmative Action and all they are really doing is covering up for quotas which is insulting to my peeps and no more morally correct than the debacle that kicked off this correspondence.
Wait… on second thought, quotas are even better than this debacle because at least with quotas, there is C-R-I-T-E-R-I-A!
Affirmative Action /= unmerited preferential treatment.
That said, I still don’t want nobody’s damn Affirmative Action ’cause there are too many institutions that don’t have the guts to confront the other people who belong to that institution who insinuate that me and my peeps got in because of unmerited preferential treatment. They are misusing AA just to fulfill a legal requirement so they can get grant funding, federal funding, and peer favor. They are pimpin’ us just to get cash then when we get in they don’t wanna pay us or promote us to the level that we are worth. But many of us settle for gettin’ in the door knowin’ that we are capable of runnin’ da show and writin’ da checks. But if you always have that cloud of suspicion over your head, how clearly are you going to think when it comes time to shine? Many institutions inadvertently use race to pitch working and middle-class peoples of different shades, hues, and culture against one another, meanwhile Mr. Bossman Cat Daddy is loungin’ back countin’ da benjamins ’cause he met his quota.
It reminds me of an episode of What’s Happenin’ when Shirley landed a job at a big name company and they relegated her to just sitting there being a fixture so as to hide that company’s bigotry. After repeated getting declined when she asked for more work, Shirley – bein’ the sista she is – wasn’t havin’ it and told the boss that this ain’t the subway and she ain’t no token. (or somethin’ like that)
You go Shirl!
T (Let’s take it to the blog! DA)
Not to be a total geek, but isn’t the symbol for “not equal” ‘!=’ rather than the forward slash-equals sign? 😉