Re: BAMN Debate
Kevin Dempsey Peterson (peterson@ocf.Berkeley.EDU)
Mon, 30 Mar 1998 15:24:34 -0800
On 30 Mar 1998, George J. Lee wrote:
>Don't worry, we won't reach a common ground. BAMN will not agree with
>this anti-affirmative action statement:
>
>"The government should not make decisions based on race or ethnicity."
And that statement is the key to the whole matter. BAMN must either
state that government may make decisions based on race and/or ethnicity,
in which case they have to explain why discrimination against minorities
is wrong. They can't even use "past discrimination" because when the US
engaged in slavery, that was just "making decisions based on race and/or
ethnicity", which they have already agreed is okay.
They can't deny that government can make decicions based on race and/or
ethnicity, because that's what affirmative action is.
The argument they have to use (since I'm guessing your opening argument
will contain that statement) is to explain that different things are
okay depending on what race is doing it. They can't use "the majority
is always wrong" because that's what you get with colonialism, the
minority dominating the majority. The only argument they can use is
"caucasians are evil", which sounds a good deal like Hitler's "the jews
are evil".
To justify affirmative action, they must show why asians who were
previously discriminated against should be punished, while hispanics,
who have not been as seriously discriminated against as asians are
rewarded.
But this is from my point of view, and you can't predict arguments
without seeing it from their point of view. Their argument will
probably center around differences in success are a posteriori proof of
discrimination that must be remedied.