ok. just two little cents to put in. you can't state that a test is culturally biased, but you can't say that it is biased by sex or ethnicity unless you are trying to say that sex and/or ethnicity is indicative of your intelligence. Exposure to facts is the key, not your sex or race.

if you are good at math, then it doesn't matter if your percentages are ERA calcsor somehow related to cooking measurements. regardless of that, we are not living in 1950 when it was common to believe that "girls don't like sports".

if people would stop thinking in stereotypes the issue would be moot and the stereotypes would begin to disappear.

oh. and about the name calling thing? different companies have different approaches to calling, whether it be cold calling or calling clientele. many companies (especially telemarketers and bill collectors) like to use the first name in order to trick the everyday american (e.g. that is trying to dodge the collector) or to create a false sense of camaraderie (the easier to convince you to buy that insurance or time share you don't need). i had a job once where we had to cold call clients and while i'm usually good with pronunciations, every now and then i would have one that i didn't pronounce well. and it's amazing how many people will get angry and yell at you over the mispronounciation of their name- even though there is no phonetical sense to it. not being someone who likes to get yelled at, i started skipping names i didnt know and quit the job as soon as i was able. just saying....

Arithemetic or math? They are different.

How does being skilled in either help you with

• visual design?
• dispute mediation?
• public speaking?
• athletics?
• driving a dump truck?

Look, I'm a mathy as well. I love it and love playing with it. But I recognize that it is not the be-all and end-all

Sales calls are not federally regulated, hiring practices are. There are fairly rigorous rules that interview practices have to follow.

And while "girls don't like sports" is no longer applicable, it is still documented fact that women are not as interested in spectator sports as men, and even less so in the statistics behind the sports. So if you had a question that talked about Baseball and ERA - unless you knew what that was, you would not be able to reason about it.

We make custom research equipment. There is not one job (other than janitor - and that's taken) in the building that doesn't need math... whether you're in design, machining, assembly, testing, shipping, or advertizing and sales.

In this company we discriminate based on math skills and science background. You didn't ask about our male/female ratio... it's horrible! Of course, that makes us sexists now, even though we've only had about 20 applicants in the history of the business that scored higher than 70% on the math test... But that's probably sexist too, rather than a serious commentary on the South Carolina education system...

If you had you're way, we would be forced to take people that couldn't do math and put them in jobs where they NEED to be able to do math, just to stop what you deem as "sexism"... All that would do is lead to actual sexism, because the people that had to rely on the math-deficient person would be constantly frustrated by them.

Better to simply advocate a better education system, and set a standard.

tundra:

was the concept that schools for black were separate; but yet, they were equal to those existing for whites (only). Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 established a rule to ascertain whether races were being discriminated against. As long as facility and services were equal, there was no discrimination. This was legal discrimination as set by the Fuller Supreme Court in 1896.

"By ensuring and enforcing legislation based on race, you are advantaging them... You say this is to overcome a basic disadvantage, but the fact is you are legislating a forced advantage... which ironically does more than anything else ever could to perpetuate a predjudice that assumes people of that race are not able to compete on their own merit... "

Today, many of the schools within the cities (Atlanta being one of the cities and Detroit another) are predominantly black, not equal in facilities or resources, and as a result unequal in the results they achieve for their students when compared to schools of mixed cultures and races or simply white.The cities lack the economic resource to bring the inner city schools to an equal state when compared to those in outlying districts. Furthermore, the states do not allocate the needed money to bring them up to standard. In a sense, we are now practicing economic discrimination against inner city schools and minorities as a result.

If you wish minorities to compete on an equal basis with no legislated and legal assistance to get into college, than provide them with equal facility and service for learning even if they are legally and economically deprived of facility and service due to no fault of their own. Many are stuck where they are in the cities, with those capable of leaving having left to the suburbs or outlying districts. In reality, this is the same as Plessy v. Ferguson except now we have an informal economic rule in place.

"I continue to advocate preferential acceptance to higher learning institutes for those that greatly exceed the average performance of their schooling, and letting the rest of affirmative action phase out."

I am happy that you do advocate for this. Now drop it down several levels and also advocate for equal economic service and facility for all students regardless of where the student lives. In which case, if this was truly the case today, your advocating for this to go to college would be realistic.

Not quite.

If I had it my way, you would have a strong incentive to actively go out and look for minorities and women who are qualified, and/or to go out and pro-actively support via internships and/or scholarships - potential candidates.

Now I agree on a better education system being necessary, especially one that is structured to suppress racism and gender discrimination. But the reality is that our society isn't willing to pay for that.

degsme:

economic discrimination