For both discussions about governmental policies regarding conditions of employment and discussions about college admission policies, it's important to look deeply into the details of what the policies actually do. If long-term, sustained economic growth that spreads prosperity around the general population is the goal, then it is certainly possible to have too much governmental intervention, governmental intervention that denies employers flexibility and keeps the masses from helping themselves through free enterprise.
Your comment mentioned "affirmative action" in the context of college admission, and hived off many subcomments of varying quality. College admission practices in the United States are partly constrained by federal regulations (applicable to all colleges, government-run or privately run, that receive federal grants or admit students who receive federal financial aid) and partly constrained by state law in some states or by agreements in NCAA athletic conferences. Not all colleges have the same admission policy. Few people are aware that Harvard, which endeavors to interview all applicants for undergraduate admission and receives application forms with the applicant's real name in all cases, nonetheless reports to the federal government that 12 percent of its undergraduates are "race/ethnicity unknown."
In United States federal law, all colleges are required to ask their applicants and enrolled students questions about federal defined "race" and "ethnicity" categories. But students are not required to answer those questions, and more than 1 million currently enrolled students in United States colleges and universities are reported as "race/ethnicity unknown."
I know a family of "black" people who have a daughter studying at Caltech, which is reputed to pay very little attention to "race" as an admission criterion. I knew that young woman as she was growing up (she and my oldest son were classmates in a mathematics summer program, through which I met her mother) and she certainly had a variety of college choices when she was applying for college. It may be that she particularly likes being at Caltech just because it is reputed to admit qualified applicants, period, without consideration of issues that don't pertain to the applicant's ability to succeed in a legendarily tough academic program. Throughout the United States, when organizations make clear what personal characteristics they are looking for, and what benefits there are to joining [insert name of college here, or insert name of employer here], then young people of all varieties of ethnic groups step up and develop the qualifications. One of the best ways to honor the young people who develop competitive qualifications for competitive opportunities is for colleges and employers to make clear that what they are looking for is qualified applicants, irrespective of the social categories the applicants may belong to.
Your comment mentioned "affirmative action" in the context of college admission, and hived off many subcomments of varying quality. College admission practices in the United States are partly constrained by federal regulations (applicable to all colleges, government-run or privately run, that receive federal grants or admit students who receive federal financial aid) and partly constrained by state law in some states or by agreements in NCAA athletic conferences. Not all colleges have the same admission policy. Few people are aware that Harvard, which endeavors to interview all applicants for undergraduate admission and receives application forms with the applicant's real name in all cases, nonetheless reports to the federal government that 12 percent of its undergraduates are "race/ethnicity unknown."
http://members.ucan-network.org/harvard
In United States federal law, all colleges are required to ask their applicants and enrolled students questions about federal defined "race" and "ethnicity" categories. But students are not required to answer those questions, and more than 1 million currently enrolled students in United States colleges and universities are reported as "race/ethnicity unknown."
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/12282...
I know a family of "black" people who have a daughter studying at Caltech, which is reputed to pay very little attention to "race" as an admission criterion. I knew that young woman as she was growing up (she and my oldest son were classmates in a mathematics summer program, through which I met her mother) and she certainly had a variety of college choices when she was applying for college. It may be that she particularly likes being at Caltech just because it is reputed to admit qualified applicants, period, without consideration of issues that don't pertain to the applicant's ability to succeed in a legendarily tough academic program. Throughout the United States, when organizations make clear what personal characteristics they are looking for, and what benefits there are to joining [insert name of college here, or insert name of employer here], then young people of all varieties of ethnic groups step up and develop the qualifications. One of the best ways to honor the young people who develop competitive qualifications for competitive opportunities is for colleges and employers to make clear that what they are looking for is qualified applicants, irrespective of the social categories the applicants may belong to.