(CA) Affirmative action suit gets Brown's support

[MellowDem]

7. Is affirmative action effective?

We've had it in place for a while now, and the inequalities are all still there, if not worse.

As far as I can tell, it has failed miserably as a policy to create equal opportunities, mainly because by the time college comes, it's far too late to be giving out opportunities, the damage has been done. It's addressing the wrong end of the problem.

It seems to distract from the far bigger problem that is creating these unequal opportunities from birth. Concentrated poverty. Until that is fixed, it's hard to see how racial affirmative action will do much besides be fodder for conservatives and be used as a sort of punching bag by them since it hasn't worked to improve the condition of minorities.

Part of it is just cultural as well, and that's hard to address in any way by the government. I don't know that it can be.