How To Use Proxy In China?

If race is a poor proxy for social and economic advantage, can any reasonable argument for affirmative action survive?

• For instance, I've attended top universities with classmates who are (black) Nigerian and sons/daughters of enormously wealthy and socially-advantaged people. I'm of mixed race, but have had every imaginable social and economic advantage I can think of - I certainly don't think someone in my position should receive any special treatment compared to a middle-class white person, for instance. As there are more extremely wealthy and privileged people who are non-white, does affirmative action on the basis of race (rather than childhood household income or other factors) begin to make far less sense? China produces a millionaire every few hours, the wealthiest man on earth is Mexican, wealthy black Africans are buying in some of the poshest areas of London and Paris, Middle Eastern immigrants to New York and London include some of the wealthiest people in the world, the mixed race children of the President of the United States will potentially be legacy admits to Harvard. Meanwhile, most food stamp recipients in the US are white and many whites are poor and without social or economic advantages of other groups. Surely the world is very different from the white-is-a-proxy-for-wealthy world of the 1950's and 60's, no? Why do we still use race as a proxy for wealth and privilege even though it is so clearly outdated and incorrect?

• Answer:

  It actually happens in a lot of countries. Take India for instance. We have a reservation policy for people of backward classes in almost everything. Education, Politics, Jobs and so on. There are a lot of people who share the same kind of thinking. But most of the times the advantages that they get because of their "backward class" are too tempting and can't be overlooked. This has to change from the top; which is highly unlikely.