In “Obligating Shell: An Informal Essay on Formal Equality,” Patricia Williams provides stories that deal equality and affirmative action. The stories examined can be analyzed through Patricia Williams’ metaphor of the sausage machine. Essentially, the sausage machine is about equality, power, language, and interpretation. Patricia Williams uses the metaphor of the sausage machine to talk about affirmative action and language.
She begins her argument by providing small stories that illustrate the concept of equality and affirmative action. Patricia Williams uses the Court decision in the City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. case to illustrate the challenge posed to the Court in relation to an affirmative action program that was made by the …show more content…
The second sausage machine would acknowledge that there are a set of assumptions that influence a person’s merit. The third approach of the sausage machine would require us to rethink the definition of merit. Patricia William suggests that when applying the sausage machines, we should be aware of which machine we are using and why are we making the choice we are making. In regards to merit, Patricia Williams stories challenge our assumptions of merit.
Patricia Williams tells the Beethoven story to illustrate how society tends to make assumptions about people based on their skin colour. For instance, Beethoven is often perceived as a white person even though is half white and half black. This story illustrates the ignorance around mixed culture. She provides the following expertise to allowing how society base race on appearance:
“Affirmative action programs, of which minority set-asides are but one example, were designed to remedy a segregationist view of equality in which positivistic categories of race reigned supreme. "White" had an ironclad definition that was the equivalent of "good," or "deserving." "Black" had an ironclad definition that was the equivalent of "bad," or unworthy of …show more content…
For Young, merit is correlated with skin privilege and higher socioeconomic status. People who are poor and of colour have a much harder time changing their socioeconomic status because of the way in which these policies interact to keep them out of mainstream society. Young’s article supports the affirmative action and provides criticism on the assumption of merit. Affirmative action is viewed as being a tool to overcome past injustices and for enabling society to overcome oppression. It can also be viewed as a mechanism that seeks to fix the system. The sausage machine, according to Young, would hold merit to be objective. Her definition of merit is based on a set of skills, education, and the motivation. Her main critique of merit is to determine what merit constitute. She is concerned about what makes a person qualified for a
She begins her argument by providing small stories that illustrate the concept of equality and affirmative action. Patricia Williams uses the Court decision in the City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. case to illustrate the challenge posed to the Court in relation to an affirmative action program that was made by the …show more content…
The second sausage machine would acknowledge that there are a set of assumptions that influence a person’s merit. The third approach of the sausage machine would require us to rethink the definition of merit. Patricia William suggests that when applying the sausage machines, we should be aware of which machine we are using and why are we making the choice we are making. In regards to merit, Patricia Williams stories challenge our assumptions of merit.
Patricia Williams tells the Beethoven story to illustrate how society tends to make assumptions about people based on their skin colour. For instance, Beethoven is often perceived as a white person even though is half white and half black. This story illustrates the ignorance around mixed culture. She provides the following expertise to allowing how society base race on appearance:
“Affirmative action programs, of which minority set-asides are but one example, were designed to remedy a segregationist view of equality in which positivistic categories of race reigned supreme. "White" had an ironclad definition that was the equivalent of "good," or "deserving." "Black" had an ironclad definition that was the equivalent of "bad," or unworthy of …show more content…
For Young, merit is correlated with skin privilege and higher socioeconomic status. People who are poor and of colour have a much harder time changing their socioeconomic status because of the way in which these policies interact to keep them out of mainstream society. Young’s article supports the affirmative action and provides criticism on the assumption of merit. Affirmative action is viewed as being a tool to overcome past injustices and for enabling society to overcome oppression. It can also be viewed as a mechanism that seeks to fix the system. The sausage machine, according to Young, would hold merit to be objective. Her definition of merit is based on a set of skills, education, and the motivation. Her main critique of merit is to determine what merit constitute. She is concerned about what makes a person qualified for a