While everyone was going up about the Supreme Court’s block on President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief plan, the court passed another decision right under our noses. According to NBC News, the court refused to hear the appeal of a Black death row inmate who alleged his jury was picked based on race.

Tony Clark was convicted on murder charges and sentenced to death in the killing of a 13-year-old boy during the robbery of a convenience store back in 2014. His appeal claimed that during the jury selection for his trial, prosecutors unlawfully sought to strike Black jurors based solely on race. That would be in direct violation of the Court’s 1986 ruling that potential jurors can’t be excluded based on race. But alas, Clark’s trial was composed of 11 white people and one Black person.

  • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    So in your opinion minoritie are less capable of getting into college. Besides economic reasons, (class-based affirmative action actually makes sense) what disadvantage is placed on someone because of their race?

    • almar_quigley@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s racism. Racism is the thing that you’re looking for. Are you saying there’s no racism? Anywhere? You’re not arguing in good faith at all. This whole economic aspect is just a straw man distraction.

      • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Obviously I dont think theres no racism, racism runs deep in many aspects of the USA.

        However, there is no racism in the college admissions system, and if there is, anonymize race during admission.

        If anything race as an AA factor is a straw man distraction, as there is actually a correlation between your economic state and what colleges you can attend, while your race has no effect on this.

        • almar_quigley@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You’re making a whole lotta statements that are pure conjecture and talking points. “Racism doesn’t exist….but I mean if it does just do this one thing and it’s gone!”

          • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            I don’t see how anonymizing race on college admissions is pure conjecture and a talking point. I agree with the quote you say as if it proves me wrong; if the people doing the admissions do not know the students applying, there can be no racial bias in their selection of students. If that’s conjecture, do you have a reason that would not be the case?

            • almar_quigley@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The conjecture is saying there’s no racism. Those are the literal words you used. Then you went on to add in a what if scenario with a very over simplified and rose colored glasses solution. And if you remove race from an application there are still so many ways for people to infer. Your name, city of birth, schools, hobbies, etc. Yes anonymizing applications could work but it’s not as simple as removing the race field. I know this very well as someone who’s been hiring people for 15+ years. The amount of unconscious bias we all have is pretty surprising when you see it demonstrated for yourself.

              Then there’s also the problem of once folks get on how are you sure they’re being treated equally. You’re trying to make this a simple problem and it’s much more complex than you can imagine.

              • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                Remove the name from the application information too then. I disagree that your city of birth, school, or hobby could give someone enough information to reasonably infer your race.

                I don’t think the solution to racism in college admissions is to assume the people selecting will be biased and discriminate the other way around. The solution is to make a procedure where there is no room for anything other than absolutely stupid outliers. Maybe one in a thousand college admissions counselor would try to infer a students race, but that counselor is just terrible at their job in that case (in a world where the pertinent details have been anonymized).

                If anything, I think its conjecture to assume there will be an implicit bias even if pertinent information to race is removed from applications.

    • archiotterpup@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s your opinion of AA, and a reductive take, not mine. This country has never been race blind and to assume otherwise is incredibly ignorant and naive.

      • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Yes, this country has never once in its history been “race blind”, and minorities have historically (and in many ways still are) at a disadvantage. Getting into college is not something minorities struggle with because of their race, if one race struggles disproporionately to another, that is almost certainly due to that races average economic condition, not a direct result of race.

        So why should we discriminate against people based off of race, at best enforcing stereotypes, and at worst being completely unconstitional. AA would be much more fair and effective if applied to low income individuals and communities, as your income actually has an effect on your ability to go to college.