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From: regard@ttidcc.UUCP (Adrienne Regard)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics
Subject: Discrimination and AA
Message-ID: <504@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Jun-85 11:01:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.504
Posted: Wed Jun 26 11:01:53 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 01:35:02 EDT
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>
>But we aren't talking about why people are getting arrested for this.  What
>we're talking about is why these guidelines are around in the first place.
>These guidelines are meant to be a "fair" way of stopping discrimination,
>but are they really?  That is the question.  Are we right in saying. . .
>My answer to all the above: no.  But Adrienne, you don't seem to want to
>talk about the validity of the law, just the existence and the unavoid-
>ability of it.

>            Colin Rafferty { Math Department, Carnegie-Mellon University }

Colin, I think you got a problem here.  First off, my response to alice!jj
has been interpreted by you as "we aren't talking. . .".  Frankly, I
didn't know you spoke for alice!jj. Granted that "we" post to the net so
that other's might read our opinions, don't you feel you are taking it a
little far interpreting what jj meant?

Not that I should be surprised, since you evidently feel qualified to further
determine what I mean to talk about (in your last line above).  I've been
very busy lately, true, and haven't been caught up on reading, let alone
posting, but please grant me the right to speak for myself.  You really don't
need to waste your time trying to do it for me.

Thirdly, I'm not sure that your definition of AA is correct.  It is seen as
a means of stopping discrimination.  Whether or not anyone considers AA
"fair" probably requires some kind of poll.  Is a flat tax rate more "fair"
than a graduated rate?  Govt. isn't interested in "fair" so much as in
"effective" (which, in the case of AA is also arguable).  What AA _has_
done is offer grounds for suit, and lawsuits have done a good deal toward
evening things up -- and they certainly are not "fair".

I do have a certain sense of the inevitability of equality (don't you???)
simply because the marketplace has changed so drastically.  The economy
won't be able to support such disparities in incomes given our tax methods
and transfer payments.  However, that doesn't mean I'm complacent -- after
all, I work _right now_.  I'd be a lot happier if the distinction between
classes and sexes ceased to exist simply because it would make things
easier.  I consider AA worthy of support because it is accomplishing some
of these goals and is better than nothing.  So far, "nothing" is what has
been suggested by the opponents of AA.

I'd be happy to entertain other ideas, if they were presented.

Adrienne Regard