[465] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: In Defense of Affirmative Action
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (matt)
Wed May 2 15:28:40 2001
To: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
Cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
From: matt <deberg@xennahtron.com>
Date: 02 May 2001 15:28:17 -0400
In-Reply-To: "Christopher D. Beland"'s message of "Wed, 02 May 2001 13:40:09 -0400"
Message-ID: <knhn18vwnxq.fsf@chamomile.xennahtron.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
beland> matt writes:
>> but nobody has asserted unjustice at the individual level. given
>> two equal candidates, if MIT picks the majority over the minority
>> then the minority is also justified in complaining. AA, at least
>> how MIT does it, is by definition a macroscopic phenomenon. any
>> case-by-case analysis lacks the very context you are trying to
>> judge.
beland> Individuals, namely those that would have gotten in by
beland> random selection but didn't, certainly are affected by the
beland> macroscopic policy.
but random selection is just yes or no at the individual level! no one
individual could claim that they would have gotten in had race not been
a factor.
random variables only become interesting when you survey a large-enough
population.
matt
