Thomas Sowell | The Negative Impact of Affirmative Action | Philosophers Explained | Stephen Hicks

Affirmative action undermines merit-based competition and individual achievement, and is not a valid solution to addressing discrimination and statistical disparities 

Questions to inspire discussion

• What is the speaker's stance on affirmative action?

  —The speaker argues against affirmative action programs and emphasizes the importance of judging individuals based on their character and accomplishments.

• How do affirmative action programs allocate positions?

  —Affirmative action programs worldwide use group-based criteria to allocate positions, superseding competition based on merit, character, accomplishments, or credentials.

• Do affirmative action programs benefit the least advantaged?

  —Affirmative action benefits those who are already fortunate, while the least advantaged in targeted groups tend to miss out.

• What are the consequences of affirmative action programs?

  —Affirmative action programs can undermine the honor and credibility of achievements and honors, leading to suspicion and polarization.

• Should individuals be judged based on historical injustices?

  —Individuals should only be judged and compensated based on their individual actions and experiences, as justice should not be based on accidents or windfall gains. 

Key Insights

• 🌍 "Passionate commitment to social justice can never be a substitute for knowing what you are talking about."
• 🌍 Affirmative action can lead to increased group polarization, exacerbating the problem it aims to solve.
• 📊 Thomas Sowell emphasizes the importance of paying attention to empirical evidence and real-world outcomes, rather than just rhetoric and ideals, in evaluating the impact of affirmative action.
• 🤔 Affirmative action programs are based on illusions that group disparities in representation can be corrected by government apportioning places based on group membership.
• 📊 Thomas Sowell challenges the use of statistics to claim discrimination without considering empirical facts and historical context.
• 🤔 Not to deny that there has been discrimination, but it's a mistake to say all statistical disparities are due to inappropriate discriminations.
• 🧠 "How would we know if there had been no discrimination in the previous generation in the previous two generations in the previous however many generations where a given group would be in today's society had there not been any discrimination." - Thomas Sowell
• 🎯 "You are guilty or worthy of praise or compensation only according to what you as an individual have done or what has happened to you as an individual."
• 🤔 The Japanese have higher incomes than whites despite a history of severe discrimination, challenging the idea that discrimination is the sole cause of disparities. 

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Clips 

• 00:00 🔍 Affirmative action undermines merit-based competition and individual achievement, as Thomas Sowell argues against its use in addressing discrimination.
  • Passionate commitment to social justice cannot replace knowledge, as Thomas Sowell argues against affirmative action in his 1989 work.
  • The speaker argues against affirmative action programs and emphasizes the importance of judging individuals based on their character and accomplishments.
  • In the 1960s, there was a shift towards using affirmative action to address discrimination, and now there is a need for a social scientific assessment of its effectiveness.
  • Affirmative action programs worldwide use group-based criteria to allocate positions, superseding competition based on merit, character, accomplishments, or credentials.
• 05:12 🔍 Affirmative action programs often fail to effectively benefit the most disadvantaged, leading to increased group polarization and fraudulent claims of group membership.
  • Affirmative action programs are often debated as either reverse discrimination or positive discrimination, but the more important issue is the use of group-based memberships in awarding positions.
  • Affirmative action programs, even when intended to be temporary, tend to persist and expand in scope, and often do not effectively benefit those who have fallen behind the most.
  • Affirmative action benefits those who are already fortunate, while the least advantaged in targeted groups tend to miss out.
  • Preferential programs have led to increased group polarization, and affirmative action has not effectively addressed the issue of old-fashioned discrimination.
  • Affirmative action leads to increased polarization and widespread fraudulent claims of belonging to designated beneficiary groups, incentivizing people to fake their membership in order to gain advantages.
  • The speaker discusses the importance of considering the empirical consequences of preferential policies, rather than just focusing on the theoretical goals and motives.
• 12:29 🔍 Affirmative action programs are based on illusions of correcting group disparities, overlooking individual character and promoting statistical analysis, which may not accurately represent true disparities and can lead to falsely alarming statistics.
  • Affirmative action programs are based on illusions that group disparities can be corrected by government apportionment, but this approach overlooks individual character and promotes statistical analysis of group representation.
  • Affirmative action programs are seen as a way to rectify past wrongs, but they are actually an illusion and do not compensate for the injustices suffered.
  • Statistical disparities between groups are often not true disparities when considering other factors, and assuming negative discrimination as the only cause can lead to falsely alarming statistics.
  • Statistical disparities in professions are often attributed to discrimination without considering historical context and empirical evidence.
• 17:11 🌍 Different groups choose different mobility routes based on traditions and family structures, leading to statistical disparities in representation, and historical factors, not discrimination, explain overrepresentation of certain groups in various industries.
  • Different groups choose different mobility routes based on their traditions and family structures, leading to statistical disparities in representation.
  • Historical factors, not discrimination, explain the overrepresentation of Jews in the clothing industry in various countries.
  • Different ethnic and religious groups may specialize in different professions, leading to unequal representation and discrimination.
• 20:53 📉 Affirmative action is not a valid solution to statistical disparities, as it is impossible to determine the impact of past discrimination and should not be enshrined in law.
  • Statistical disparities in representation cannot be solely attributed to discrimination, as historically marginalized groups have been able to achieve overrepresentation in certain coveted positions.
  • Enshrining assumptions about statistical disparities and discrimination in law has heavy consequences, as seen in the US Supreme Court's treatment of statistical disparities as equivalent to discrimination.
  • The argument is that affirmative action is necessary to correct for racial discrimination in admissions to medical school.
  • The speaker argues that it is impossible to determine the impact of past discrimination on current statistics due to the lack of knowledge about what society would look like without it.
  • Imagining alternate historical events and their impact is not a valid basis for knowledge or legal action, and should not be used to justify preferential policies like affirmative action.
• 27:12 🔍 Understanding disparities between groups is essential, as factors like geography and climate play a role, and assuming even representation without discrimination is unfounded; affirmative action can undermine achievements and lead to suspicion and injustice.
  • Understanding the various factors that contribute to disparities between different groups is essential in determining the existence and magnitude of discrimination.
  • Geographic distribution and climate play a significant role in the representation of ethnic groups in certain industries, and attributing underrepresentation to discrimination is not accurate.
  • Factors such as age, location, and various other influences disrupt the assumption of even representation in professions and occupations, and the assumption that groups would be evenly represented in the absence of discrimination is arbitrary and unfounded.
  • Historically persecuted groups like the overseas Chinese and Jews have achieved success, but affirmative action programs based on statistical disparities are based on a cognitive impossibility.
  • Affirmative action programs can undermine the honor and credibility of achievements and honors, leading to suspicion and polarization.
  • Admission based on affirmative action can lead to suspicion and injustice for those who earned their way into the law school.
• 36:32 🤔 Affirmative action can lead to workplace tensions and worsen racial discrimination, raising complex moral questions about compensating for historical injustices and the collectivization of guilt.
  • Affirmative action can lead to tensions and problems in the workplace, as it may cause colleagues to question the qualifications of their new hires.
  • Affirmative action programs can worsen racial discrimination by creating new reasons for people to discriminate based on race, and can also downgrade the achievements of individuals from preferred groups.
  • Compensating for past wrongs through affirmative action raises questions about the moral and logical basis of transferring benefits between living contemporaries based on historical injustices.
  • Historical injustices such as slavery present complex moral issues when it comes to compensating descendants of slaves and slave owners.
  • The idea is that group compensation for historical injustices raises questions about the collectivization and inheritance of guilt.
  • Individuals should only be judged and compensated based on their individual actions and experiences, as justice should not be based on accidents or windfall gains.
• 44:20 📚 Past wrongs do not justify compensatory preferences based on race, gender, or ethnicity, as historical discrimination does not necessarily correlate with the current status of a group.
  • Past wrongs do not justify compensatory preferences based on race, gender, or ethnicity, as the contemporary socioeconomic position of groups often does not correlate with historic wrongs suffered.
  • Japanese have higher incomes than whites despite past discrimination, undermining the argument that discrimination explains the current status of descendants of discriminated groups.
  • Historical discrimination does not necessarily correlate with the current status of a group, as there are many other factors at play.
  • The high rate of single parent teenage pregnancy among blacks is not a legacy of slavery and does not justify affirmative action.
  • The evidence shows that the increase in single-parent households among black families cannot be solely attributed to historical factors, and a passionate commitment to social justice is not a substitute for understanding the real causes.

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