Quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
Barry, this thread is ONLY about the USA. Here in the states anyone can get a decent education...if they work for it. Public education quality varys wildly here but it is available and if a person of any race or sex wants to get to college they can do it. Sometimes its a matter of hard choices but it is true that in the USA ANYONE can succeed.
It took me 35 years to get to college but I do it now in my spare time. (I could have doen it way earlier but ...its all about choices)
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I am talking about the US MagiK. It is simply not true that anyone can get an education if they work for it. A lot of people have to work a lot harder than others to overcome years of prejudice and economic discrimination. So they can't afford to go to the same schools, they can't get into debt to do so, they have to work to support a family or simply they don't want to go to a school where they believe themselves not welcome due to a lack of minority students. I stand by my claim that the education system is still inherently racist, and the figures seem to prove it. Positive discrimination, whilst a philosophical contradiction, is necessary to overcome this for now. Azred - I don't think this is a permanent thing, and I don't think it is likely to become so. You see the opposition to it now... I am suprised it has survived this long.
And Avatar, Oxbridge is not elitist? The stats imply that it is as there is a lack of state school people both applying there and succeeding to get in. Why is this? People in state schools don't receive as good an education as private school people, because they can't pay for it. So what seems more logically possible? Poor people are naturally less intelligent, or that poor people can't afford the top of the profession in teaching and all the resources that come with it.
My final point is just to aska few of you guys to take a different look at this just briefly. A lot has been said along the lines of "why do we white males have to be deprived because these people are black/yellow/women/gay/lesbian/dwarf/bagpipe players/etc...". Well, try this one - "why do the other people have to be deprived because of your advantages, they may be just as intelligent and able but not had the opportunity to show it.". And if my statement is just liberal whining then surely your first statement is just conservative whining. Just a thought...