gunnut,
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The kink in the theory is the Asian immigrants. Most of them arrive with very little money and spoke very little English. Many of them achieve middle class status within a generation and their kids assimilate very well into the mainstream society. They rarely receive special help from the current intepretation of affirmative action.
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it's not as simple as you think. most asian immigrants whom come here come from middle-class/professional backgrounds. the families who do come are more risk-taking, hard-working, and go-getter to begin with (it's a pretty big jump to go over from asia to the US after all- and they've got to afford the plane ticket).
also, the racism asian-americans face is a different type of racism (and from working in capitol hill, yes it does exist). it is the racism of the paternalist, benevolent scorn, as exemplified in TIME magazine's late 1980s cover, "those asian-american whiz kids." a bit different than the racism blacks sometimes encounter- although i too am of the opinion that THAT particular card has been played too many times, and not to their benefit.
AA should have been designed thusly. back in the late 60s and 70s when it was instituted, the original idea was a decent one. there should have been benchmarks over the years, and after a decade, maybe two, it should have transformed into economic AA, which removes the idea of reverse racism and also does something about the equaling the playing field when it comes to education (important to a democracy, and also would have helped with our worsening GINI number, too).
and then after a decade of that, it should be phased out, as well. it's a short-term panacea which, if done for too long, becomes a bad addiction.