
How Social Networks Drive Black Unemployment - protomyth
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/how-social-networks-drive-black-unemployment/
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mynewwork
"The interviewees in my study who were most angry about affirmative action
were those who had relatively fewer marketable skills — and were therefore
most dependent on getting an inside edge for the best jobs."

Completely wrong. She got so close and then completely missed it.

Poor white people exist. They're the ones who are most scared of affirmative
action not because they are losing an inside edge, but because they don't have
one. If you're a rich, prep-school attending legacy to Harvard, you can easily
support affirmative action policies because you know your own admission is
safe. If you're a blue-collar white kid, you know you're the one who is losing
your seat for the affirmative action admission.

Affirmative action doesn't scare you if you have an inside edge. Your
Uncle/Mother/frat-brother/whoever is still going to fast-track you. But if you
don't have any of those connections and privilege, then affirmative action is
terrifying. You see yourself as being penalized for an advantage that you
don't actually have, it's not leveling the playing field it's putting you at a
disadvantage. That's why those with relatively fewer marketable skills are
against it.

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flexxaeon
Notwithstanding my feeling of being link baited by the term "social networks",
the points in this article are what I've come to assume & expect. Even if you
take out the race angle, most would agree that good professional network is
all but necessary to climb the ladder of success. Factor race back in, and
it's easy to see how under representation or even discrimination play their
part.

