bencalam

Same boat. I am surprised that I had to to scroll so far down to see this comment.

Yes, it's unfortunate that you can articulate the problem so well and still not see it for what it really is. But in the interest of carrying on, I am copy pasting one of my replies -

In isolation, yes, you are very right. But history is anything but that, and there is always a context and reason for why things are the way they are.

I am from India, and I know bias when I see it. Classism and racism is systemic in India and whether you want to believe me or not, a person from a religion or upper caste will prefer a person from the same group. I am not going to claim that this exact same thing happens in the US, but I will not believe that it doesn't happen at all.

The thing is that the memo even mentions the problems with inherent bias, and then mentions that we need to have "open" dialogue.

The open dialogue is hard to happen when one group has been supressed for generations.

What are you going to tell them? - Ok, we are sorry for what we have done, now we are going to be equal and you can compete for the same things? One group is dirt poor and disatvantaged, and the other has always enjoyed enough wealth to get proper education. How is that level playing field?

Minorities need to be given a hand up, at least for a generation to really make a level playing field.

In isolation, yes, you are very right. But history is anything but that, and there is always a context and reason for why things are the way they are.

I am from India, and I know bias when I see it. Classism and racism is systemic in India and whether you want to believe me or not, a person from a religion or upper caste will prefer a person from the same group. I am not going to claim that this exact same thing happens in the US, but I will not believe that it doesn't happen at all.

The thing is that the memo even mentions the problems with inherent bias, and then mentions that we need to have "open" dialogue.

The open dialogue is hard to happen when one group has been suppressed for generations.

What are you going to tell them? - Ok, we are sorry for what we have done, now we are going to be equal and you can compete for the same things? One group is dirt poor and disadvantaged, and the other has always enjoyed enough wealth to get proper education. How is that level playing field?

Minorities need to be given a hand up, at least for a generation to really make a level playing field.

As for your examples, yes, it's unfair, but that's what the under privileged group got told for generations. I guess life really is unfair.

The shared hallucination is the one experienced by the people agreeing with the memo, and the ones who feel needlessly 'victimized' and 'persecuted' now that times are changing.

Of course, this is expected since the first ones to complain about growing equality are the ones who prospered disproportionately under inequality.