>Is it admitting defeat; throwing up hands in disgust and
>giving up on fixing the dilema at it's root?

No, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY
WAS FORGED OUT OF THE CAULDRON
of black insurgency. It was the
mobilization of black protest,
beginning with the civil rights
movement and the ensuing upsurge
of black militancy, that engendered
the political pressure for the policy
initiatives that came to be known as
"affirmative action."

Contrary to the lies, AA is not and has
never been a hand-out from the U.S. gov.
or liberal whites. Rather, it is a by-
product of the Black struggle for equality.

>Is is really
>helping minorities or is it just another form of classism
>keeping elite (whether finanicially or intellectually)
>minorities and their issues detached from the rest of their
>prospective groups?

Absolutely, positively not!

A plethora of social research
indicates that the occupational
spheres where blacks have made
the most progress -- in government
service, in major blue-collar
occupations, in corporate management,
and in the professions -- are all
areas where vigorous affirmative
action programs have been in place
over the past two decades(Steinberg,
1995).

>Is it a useful tool? If so, is it more of a wedge to get a
>foot in the door...or a wedge to create a social schism?

In his book "Turning Back, The
Retreat from Racial Justice in
American Thought and Policy",
Stephen Steinberg (1995) argues
that, "affirmative action is the
single policy of the post-civil
rights era that sought equality,
not just as a right and a theory,
but as a fact and a result" (p.165).

Nonwhites were unable to rely on
good-faith efforts by employers
until those efforts were actually
enforced by specific "goals and
timetables" that gave preference
to minority applicants "who met
basic qualifications but might
not have been hired or promoted
without affirmative action mandates"
(p.166).

Blacks have made the greatest
progress in firms and job sectors
where affirmative action has been
implemented: in government, in major
blue-collar industries, and in cor-
porate management and the professions
(eBadgett and Hartmann in Economic
Perspectives on Affirmative Action).

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The Rand (Paul or Ayn) philosophy, putting private property rights at
the same level of human rights, equates the status of things with the
status of human beings. If property is considered equal