# Affirmative Action:  Use enslavement history as a test?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-use-enslavement-history-as-a-test/730659>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 11, 2015, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-use-enslavement-history-as-a-test/730659 "2015-09-11T10:50:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-use-enslavement-history-as-a-test/730659/81 "2015-10-06T21:57:03Z")

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I think the proposal is to allow self identification (I seem to be repeating myself here) and let the results be genetically and historically messy.

Works w/ regular race-based AA, so it’s not clear to me what the fuss is about how to define it…

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**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmative-action-use-enslavement-history-as-a-test/730659/82 "2015-10-08T00:02:21Z")

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If people don’t know what race they are, I can hardly see how asking them about any kind of history will be any sort of improvement.

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