Numbers or percentages

Submitted by Vazir Mukhtar (United States), May 17, 2010 at 15:05

Before I buy into the notion of affirmative action being at work in the contests mentioned, I'd need to know the total number of contestants, the number of racial-ethnic groups, and the number of contestants in each of the racial-ethnic groups represented.

It would be helpful to know who sponsors the contests in question and to have a breakdown of the judges: total number, number of men, racial-ethnic groups represented among the judges, etc.

I'm no fan of affirmative action, but before I label a fact, etc., the result of affirmative action, I'd like to have evidence on which to base my conclusion.

Fair is fair; we should all be playing by the same rules.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".