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WATCH: Incredible ‘Change My Mind’ Episode On ‘Affirmative Action’

   DailyWire.com
Steven Crowder and Prof Xavier.
Screenshots via YouTube/Steven Crowder

On Friday, the Louder with Crowder team uploaded the latest installment of the “Change My Mind” series, which served as the second part to a previous episode about affirmative action.

The first half, which is titled, “Affirmative Action is Racist,” can be watched here.

Following an approximately ten minute exchange with a University of Texas at Austin student named Ben, which is worth a watch in its own right, Steven Crowder engaged in a lengthy conversation with Raphael Xavier, an African American professor of hip hop dance.

After Crowder explained his belief that affirmative action is racist, Xavier stated that while he doesn’t think affirmative action is a “racist” practice, he admitted that he might not be as informed about it as Crowder is.

“I understand where you’re coming from, and I think that it’s a virtuous goal to want to correct the wrongs of the past,” Crowder said. “I don’t believe that the right way to do that is to then implement more systemic discrimination, whether it’s against Asians, white Americans, Mexican Americans, black Americans … and I also would argue that it has not been effective in achieving the results that it wants.”

Later in the discussion, when Crowder detailed his issues with affirmative action, Xavier wondered about the need for racial diversity in schools, seemingly comparing it to “equal opportunity.” Crowder replied that he isn’t against the natural formation of diversity “based on the premise of equal opportunity,” but that he doesn’t believe in forced equal outcome.

Xavier then stated that if diversity isn’t occurring naturally because some groups of students “are not getting the qualifications or the scores that it takes to get into [the] school,” affirmative action might be necessary to promote a more diverse student body.

CROWDER: Okay, so you support the idea of racial quotas to promote racial diversity?

XAVIER: Yeah, but I wouldn’t call it – 

CROWDER: I mean, I just want to make sure because you just said “quotas.” 

XAVIER: Yeah, yeah, but I wouldn’t call it racial because [pause]…

CROWDER: So, what would you call specifically allowing a black person in with lower credentials because they’re black if not racial? What would you call that?

XAVIER: Hmm, off hand, man, I would just say it’s offering an opportunity to someone who would never have the chance to do that kind of – 

CROWDER: But they do have the chance, by meeting the same criteria.

XAVIER: But they don’t come from a place where they’re – if they grew up in an environment that doesn’t allow them … to grow with their environment, to be surrounded by the thing that gives them a certain kind knowledge where they can learn these things to get into the schools.

Crowder criticized the idea of “diversity for diversity’s sake,” adding that affirmative action seems to have had a “net negative” impact because “black enrollment in higher-tier universities, like Ivy League, is lower now than 35 years ago, pre-affirmative action.”

He then noted that affirmative action is also having a negative impact on Asian Americans, who were discriminated against in the past as well, but now have to achieve higher test scores on average in order to be accepted into certain universities due to affirmative action.

“An Asian female right now has to score higher than a white male solely because Asian Americans have typically performed well on standardized testing, they have done very well with extracurriculars – and you know the reason for that?” Crowder asked. “They faced discrimination; they faced extreme poverty … they have very strong nuclear family households, and a strong emphasis on that.”

He continued, stating that the “biggest socioeconomic indicator” is having a two-parent household, further explaining that “nearly 80%” of black American households are single-parent households, which Crowder noted is a result of former President Lyndon Johnson’s welfare and Model Cities programs, “which incentivized single-parent households.”

Xavier responded, saying:

Now I’m starting to think more about, I mean, it could be racist … I didn’t think it was, but putting these things in place the way you’re saying – both of them could stand side-by-side. It is and it isn’t, depending on how you look at it.

The exchange continued from there, with Crowder and Xavier thoughtfully discussing single-parent upbringings, and the impact of fatherlessness across all households, but specifically Africa American households.

Crowder and Xavier’s sit-down shows how important and constructive these types of calm exchanges of opinion and information can be.

There’s so much more to not only Crowder’s conversation with Xavier, but his previous conversation with Ben and his subsequent conversation with a female student named Alejandra.

Check out the entire video here:

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