Is tolerance intolerant?

[bennyboy]

Benny, it can make societies better but doesn't have to. There have been a lot of affirmative action moves that have been beneficial to societies over the years. Affirmative action with no reason or value assessment is just public outrage and emotionalism and is not productive to long term happiness, IMO.

I'm sorry, you missed my tone.  I was being sarcastic-- I don't think so-called "reverse" discrimination or racism is acceptable on any grounds or for any reason.  I don't think any kind of discrimination, "reverse" or otherwise, ever leads to an overall improvement in the constitution of a society. Either we tolerate differential behavior toward people based on their race, or we do not.  I believe we should not.

For example, should Obama's kids get preference for Harvard, while my (much less advantaged) kids don't?  I think obviously not.  Should Bubba's kids, who are white as the driven snow but from an impoverished background, get preference?  Maybe, since they haven't so far had real equal opportunity.  Should a black kid from the ghetto get preference?  I'd say yes, for the same reason.

To me, how you best frame it is this-- a higher education is a right for ALL citizens, and any citizens who are impoverished should have support from the cradle to the Harvard application.  I believe it's in America's interest to have the best-educated population it possibly can, not only for moral reasons, but in preparation for global competition from China and other nations, and that means making sure everyone has a chance. Whatever anyone thinks about this or that race-- the better geared ALL citizens are, the better the US will be able to maintain its dominance, and given that China and Russia are next in line, that's absolutely critical.

What it does not mean is measuring melanin, or asking people if they identify as black, white or "other, fill in the blank." Any political world view (read: PC identity politics) that insists on using race as a metric is explicitly racist, and is in the wrong.