# Affirmative Action -- Fighting Racism with Racism **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 30, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034 "2003-11-30T07:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Bigblackafrican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bigblackafrican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bigblackafrican)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034/121 "2003-12-18T18:06:50Z")
White people have systematically degraded African Americans. Now all of a sudden the white man is a victim. Please. Look over your history and come again. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034/122 "2003-12-18T18:22:30Z")
"Your figures do not reflect the fact that poor and working class whites benefitted little or not at all from the “legacy” practice. " You’re right. I’m not sure why you think this admonishment is necessary, however. I make no claims that all whites benefit. I only said that right now, as throughout history, whites in general have a better chance of benefiting from legacy status. That doesn’t mean all whites benefit, nor does it mean that no black student has ever been a legacy. I’m addressing a much simpler point, the one where a poster challenged the assertion that overall, whites stand to benefit more from admissions policies which favor legacies. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034/123 "2003-12-18T18:32:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bigblackafrican \* > \*\*White people have systematically degraded African Americans. Now all of a sudden the white man is a victim. Please. > > Look over your history and come again. \*\* If you think no whites have ever been exploited and brutalized, you’re the one who needs to take another look at history. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034/124 "2003-12-18T19:29:57Z")
> [@](#): > > If you think no whites have ever been exploited and brutalized, you’re the one who needs to take another look at history. Straw man. There are cultural burdens that are born by some whites in certain regions of North America by reason of the classes of society in those regions. However, a simple change of location removed the regional burdens. And there has never been a systematic exploitation of whites in North America simply because they were white. My ancestors suffered severe repression under the British and then faced discrimination in the U.S., but the simple loss of an accent and a bit of education was enough to eliminate those pressures. (They suffered a more restricted discrimination for a while longer, due to their religion, but then they just out-bred the discriminators and took over.) Portraying “white victims” in the U.S. is silly. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034/125 "2003-12-19T15:35:42Z")
Portaying any entire group as anything based soley on race is silly. > [@](#): > > _by monstro_ > Are you being facetitious, Debaser? Yes. Seriously, I would argue that they are equally bad. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034/126 "2003-12-19T15:39:23Z")
Somehow, I don’t think a one-post poster known as “bigblackafrican” is serious here… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-fighting-racism-with-racism/216034.md?page=6)