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-Subject: Affirmative Action
-From: Andrew Yu <andrew@andrewyu.org>
-Message-Id: <CTWUQHND92OE.31YJ2FM2GHPTB@andrewyu>
-Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2023 14:14:28 +0000
-Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
-X-Mailer: aerc 0.14.0
-X-Article-ID: 21
-
-(Slightly modified for "publication")
-
-(Actually, no, this is just insanely badly written. I'll rewrite it
-sometime.)
-
-(Update: check https://git.runxiyu.org/runxiyu/philo.git/plain/affirmative-action/)
-
-Here is my attempt at the Harvard/UNC affirmative action question,
-though I can't guarantee it's comprehensive, objective or developed, and
-the language here is deadly plain. Be aware that there's a fair bit of
-ethics, political philosophy and (minimal but still) US politics ahead.
-Also, since I'm Asian myself (of course, disadvantaged under the AA
-policies), perhaps I'm biased.
-
-Firstly, let me declare my unconventional "stance". I believe that
-affirmative action based on race is generally useless and may backfire;
-however if I were a supreme court justice, I would vote with the
-Liberals, to not interfere with the affirmative action policies of the
-universities.
-
-I'll start with why I believe that the court shouldn't interfere with
-the universities' policies. Harvard and UNC are private universities.
-They have their own ideals, and as long as they're not causing active
-harm to society (in my opinion, that'd be violating other people's
-negative liberty in the traditional interpretation by Isaiah Berlin—I am
-aware that there are paradoxes but it's the closest to a consistent
-theory of political philosophy that I can reach for now). Simply
-speaking, the students they admit is irrelevant to the government/state.
-If we consider public universities on the other hand, then sure. The
-government funds them, is supposed to set their goals and policies, and
-is responsible for their admissions and could rightfully implement
-policies that they see fit, but for private educational institutions, my
-"small government" mindset comes in.
-
-However, there are interesting arguments surrounding how "elite"
-universities such as Harvard, and to some extent UNC, have substantial
-social impact on society, as they are more or less a standard in
-defining tertiary education in the US and globally. Other educational
-institutions may follow their policies in attempts to bring themselves
-to the prestigious "standard" that elite institutions set, these elite
-universities are crucial in educational mobility, there might be
-potential public investment, etc. However I still intuitively think that
-the government shouldn't intervene, perhaps because of how in the US,
-court cases set precedents, and a precedent of such intervention would
-"allow" for government expansion and potential for the government to dip
-their feet into more private business. 
-
-Now I'll briefly argue why I believe that affirmative action based on
-race is generally useless and may backfire. There are three main reasons
-that I could think of for affirmative action, I'll describe my opinion
-on each, one by one.
-
-First, that affirmative action promotes diversity. I (personally) think
-that diversity is an insufficient reason to be potentially racially
-discriminating (people with the same academic capability may be
-rejected/admitted based on racial quotas, which may be considered a form
-of discrimination based on factors that they couldn't control).
-
-Second, that affirmative action adjusts for educational inequality. I
-haven't fact-checked this, but perhaps it's true that African-Americans,
-on average, live in poorer communities and have lesser access to good
-secondary education. Therefore their grades cannot fully reflect their
-academic potential, and universities admissions should compensate for
-that. Now aside from how this feels patronizing, race is no longer a
-good measure of "lack of educational resources due to financial
-situations/etc", with the existence of quite affluent African-American
-families. Affirmative action (if any) for
-educational-inequality-adjustment could be better implemented by looking
-at education and financial situations themselves, not race.
-
-Third, that affirmative action compensates for past wrongs. Having what
-people's ancestors do affect them negatively present-day feels awkward,
-although arguably people benefitting from the achievements of their
-ancestors means that they also need to take relevant responsibilities.
-
-Anyways, here are my thoughts… a bit incomplete but might be
-interesting. Cheers!