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From: karen@randvax.UUCP (Karen Isaacson)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Discrimination [A Digreesion]
Message-ID: <2492@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-May-85 16:24:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.2492
Posted: Tue May 21 16:24:27 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 26-May-85 21:13:20 EDT
References: <482@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <436@sftri.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 38

> > Imagine a highway 10 miles wide and stretching from coast to coast.
> > Further imagine that there's a silver dollar on every square foot of
> > the highway...
> 
> Why is it money in the example?...

At the risk of putting words in the original poster's mouth, I suspect
the dollars were simply a symbol for something more nebulous like
opportunity or education.

As a really trite example, when I went to high school in the early seventies
(not all that long ago, really), girls (women...) were required to take two
years of home economics while boys (men...) were require to take only one
year of random shop.  Just a little thing, but those boys had the opportunity
to take one more year of science/math than I did, and were just that little
bit better prepared for college, etc.  You could say that they had a bit
of a head start.  (Not that I didn't subsequently catch up, but should
I have had to start out behind them?)

On a larger scale, I think folk will agree that some school systems are
of higher quality than others, and that access to those better school systems
has been mainly confined to middle class/upper middle class people (generally
white, due perhaps to the composition of our middle class).  That is, there
is at least some correlation between a families income (ah, there are those
silver dollars!) and the quality of their children's education.

Is affirmative action the answer to this problem?  Not in the long run.
In the long run, we should (and have been trying to, haven't we???)
make sure everyone has a shot at a good education.  In the short run,
well, I think the most qualified candidate should get the position/promotion.
And we should do what we can to help folk "catch up" so that they stand
a fair chance of being the most qualified candidates.  (I don't we do
people much of a favor when we put them in positions for which they are
not qualified.  In fact, we run the risk of perpetuating the stereotypes
that they aren't - and never will be - qualified for that type of work.)

-- 
decvax!randvax!karen