Affirmative Action

Do I believe in things or am I a weather vane? I walk around believing things but when my views are put under the blow torch I find it hard to really state rationally why I think that I am right. Why do I think that the Waitangi Tribunal is doing a good job, and that historical greivances should be settled?

One view of affirmative action is that it perpetuates the very things it is attempting to redress. The usual example is the average brown kid who gets a scholarship to university ahead of the better than average white kid. This is racist.

The opposite view is summarised by Aristotle: "There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals." When there are groups in a society that have been disadvantaged through deliberate historical discrimination then it is not fair to suddenly pretend we're all on a level playing field. We might all be able to shoot a goal in theory but Team Whitey is standing on the penalty spot, and Team Brown is down at halfway.