Hacker News Reader

Yeah, they bussed kids in in the South.

Uppercase Liberal politicians and their education wizards (those who forgot liberal values, but would rather inflict collective punishment as a "solution") had forced bussing of kids in Northern California in the 80's and 90's. I had to ride the bus for an hour and a half each way, three hours total per day, because there were "too many" whites and Asians at a better school one block from where I lived. And I got to deal with gangs (XIV and XIII), drug dealers and far worse. Getting up at 4:15 am and not getting home until after 5 pm... at 8-11 years old. Affirmative action, my left foot.

That's a different type of mess. Was the specific quota mandated by law or left to the school or district level? It sounds more or less like what was happening with the self imposed quotas in companies until now. Many internal rules were re-written in such ways that sometimes finding the best person for the job was no longer the actual goal, but rather finding the best woman for the job. This was aimed at fixing discrimination with more discrimination at local level.

Now they took the next step and made it into law. They completely removed any illusion of a fairness for the next appointment on any currently male only board. Which isn't to say it was fair until now. Probably far from it. Just that now it's unfair with the blessing of a law.

The point is this is not about liberalism. The target isn't to fix the inequality issues. It's a vote grab. Which is why categories with less voting power and more PR issues are largely ignored many times and by many people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com