I don't think affirmative action works especially well. But I've never understood why conservatives tend to be so focused on it either. Very few of those who complain about it are likely to ever be affected by it. In terms of issues which have a real impact on the way most people live, this is a pretty minor one.
Both sides put a lot of focus on it because it's an important issue. It affects anybody with kids who plan to go to college. Some more than others. That's a lot of people and I imagine many of them take the education of their children very seriously.
What is your purpose in trying to downplay it or making it a conservative only issue?
I've seen if directly affect my daughter's classmates who applied to the flagship public school in Florida, the University of Florida. The word among the students is that blacks have a big advantage and Hispanics have a small advantage,compared to whites and Asian. It's well documented that females have a greater chance of getting into top-notch engineering schools compared to males, when everything else is equal. These examples of bias or quotas based solely on race or gender are hard to prove and are not part of any school's policy. I know of 2 cases in which white non-Hispanic girls appealed (unsuccessfully) the UF admission decision - they thought their resumes were better than several other minority students who were accepted to UF.
Your basis for affirmative action directly affecting your daughter's classmates who applied to Florida is "word among the students" and two white girls having their rejection appeals dismissed and their "thought" that their resumes were better than other minorities students? What qualifies those girls to know whether their resume is better or not?
Not exactly iron clad evidence of anything there.
I know some people on admissions committees both at a private school in Louisiana and at UCLA. UCLA is probably more analogous to Florida, but UCLA cannot consider race in their admissions policies (which, by the way, has probably led to the least amount of
ethnic diversity on the UCLA campus in its almost 100 year history). The person I know on the committee at UCLA told me that while they cannot consider race, they can consider a bunch of other things to give them a more well-rounded class.
He gave the example of two students one with a 4.5 GPA and 2200 SAT score and the other a 4.1 GPA with a 2100 SAT score. They were both girls. And, had roughly similar extra-curriculars. UCLA was looking for, as part of their class, some students with music/band backgrounds. Both of these girls had them. However, one played the tuba (4.5 GPA) and the other played the trumpet (4.1 GPA). The committee was going to extend offers to 10 tuba players and 10 trumpet players. At the time these applications came up, they'd already extended their 10 offers to the tuba players, but had 3 spots left for trumpet players. They dinged the tuba player and accepted the trumpet player. They also accepted other applicants who had slightly worse "numbers" than the 4.1 trumpet player, but they are trying to put together what they deem well-rounded classes (without taking into account race).
So, this girl who had worse numbers got in over "better" applicants because she happened to play the trumpet. If she were of Mexican descent and Prop 209 had not been enacted, and had the two girls had known of each other's qualifications, I'm sure the parents (and maybe the student herself) of the white tuba player would have said that race-based affirmative action gave her daughter's spot to the Mexican trumpet player.
The dean of admissions for the grad school of the private school said they take race into account for diversity purposes. She said they are looking for a diverse class and student body. They want diversity of race, thought and backgrounds. So, they take into account where the applicant's hometown is, what fields of study each student got their undergrad degree in, etc. The reason they do this is because she believes that individuals that come from different racial groups, different majors, different areas of the country, all have different and important experiences, knowledge and perspectives that they can share in class discussions and in relationships that will benefit the student body as a whole. I tend to agree.