A few things people think about when they hear the term racial discrimination. They think about the United States oppressing the African-Americans, they think about the Japanese being put into camps for an indefinite stay, they think about the Native Americans being put onto reservations. However, the one thing that people do not normally think about is the white people being discriminated against.
I apologize now if I sound racist at all in this blog I am not but I do have certain feelings about this subject that will be expressed in my views.
White people are the majority in the United States but only in the United States that is not to say they are oppressed elsewhere because they are not. The white people tend to be the oppressors not the oppressed however now a days with this handy dandy little thing called affirmative action it seems to become more common and accepted.
Affirmative action is a program designed to stop discrimination by giving the minority advantages. Such as a school may have to admit so many students of this race just because they are that race not because they are better than everyone else is. They tend to have a quota to fill such as 20% minority or greater so if you have a white student with a 4.0 and a minority student with a 3.0 and they are working on filling their quota guess who is not getting in.
That is my biggest problem with racial discrimination really because it is what is going to directly affect me soon when I apply for school. I just feel it is not fair because America is more or less the only country in the world that is so obsessed with race and seems to have the longest history of oppressing each other based on race. In Cuba, they are all Cubans regardless of their skin color and I think that works better for them.
So my solution when applying to college or taking test they should completely leave out the race section because I feel like just coloring in all the bubbles every time I get to that section. Why should it matter that my skin is a different color than someone else’s I could be smarter than them or not that should be all that schools and testing facilities should worry about?
What do you think of my solution? Any of your own? How do you feel about affirmative action? Does it not give an unfair advantage to someone based solely on their skin color? Do feel that we should just ignore skin color completely instead of obsessing over it in the United States? Tell me what you think, give me your opinion.
"In Cuba, they are all Cubans regardless of their skin color and I think that works better for them."
Well, in America we have Americans of all different skin colors...so I'm not sure how it's any different? It's also hard to compare a country like America, that is seen as a melting pot of cultures and races, to Cuba.
I personally am a supporter of Affirmative Action because I think it is supporting people of all minorities. If you, being white, are applying to a company that consists of mainly black people, then yes, you would be considered and minority, and if your credentials are better than that of a black person applying for the same job but since there is obviously an upperhand for the person because of their race, then affirmative action would help YOU in this situation.
We cannot deny the fact that most people living in lower class homes are minorities and Affirmative Actions gives them a chance to go to better schools and get better jobs.
Affirmative Action shouldn't be viewed as giving white people a disadvantage but as giving all minorities, whether they are black, hispanic, women, handicap, a chance to be treated fairly.
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"Most intellects do not believe in God, but they fear us just the same." - Erykah Badu
I used to feel the same way are you DMather.... then I enrolled in a class called "contemporary social problems" and completely changed my mind.
The truth of the matter is that Affirmative Action is not just designed to eliminate discrimination; it is designed to eradicate the racial/economic stratification that has developed in our society because of racial discrimination.
Not to say that racism isn't still a prevalent factor in our society -- it is -- but it is because of the repercussions of past discrimination that Affirmative Action still serves a purpose. The majority of the lower class people are minorities, and minorities (especially in the case of African Americans) comprise the lower class because of unequal opportunity in the past that has kept them in a cycle of poverty and segregation into the present. In theory, minority students may have an equal chance of getting into college if they have performed well in school, but living in the inner-city surrounded by poverty and the package that comes with it (drugs, crime, poor educational opportunities, etc.) makes it harder for these students to compete with the rest of the applicants, most of whom come from middle and upper class families, and attended good public schools or private school. And the majority of those applicants are most likely white.
So while it may seem unfair simply from a racial stand point, Affirmative Action is necessary to help eradicate poverty and the segregation of minorities not just on racial but on socioeconomic lines.
A^2
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/redwhitebluegreen