Alright, I understand that this will probably piss a bunch of people off, but I've reached the end of my rope. Nobody ever said that life was fair, but there is a point where it aggravates...
As a white girl in a stable home in a middle class neighborhood, many people think that I've got it made. Sure, in some senses I do...but not when it comes to getting a job, or, more importantly, getting into school. Because you're of some heritage or believe in something different shouldn't make you so important as to receive a free ride.
Okay, that's a little too broad. Let's say that you're half white, half-minority of some sort like one of my friends is. Basically, he's been offered full rides to the University of Nebraska and the University of Arizona if he gets in. This could be because he got a PSAT score that gave him merit among his fellow race, he is also behind me over a hundred spots in the class ranking. Now don't get me wrong, I respect this guy--he works hard, and high school didn't treat him right hence giving him a lower ranking than he deserves, but why is there a National Hispanic Merit Scholar program? Why are there all-black schools? How is it that the white man is always evil and oppressive?
All cultures go through a period of gross mistreatment, however unequal or different they may be. The blacks were slaves, the Jews are ALWAYS the butt of jokes, the Asians called a slew of names and things all stereotypical, and, of course, the Hispanics are going through the age of "the illegal alien." It sucks, I'll scream on the rooftops for you. However, you have to realize that this happened to the Europeans, too: the Irish were outcasts when they came here, the Germans accused of being Nazis, and, if you really want to get to the heart of the matter, the Protestants were ostracized and had to make due.
This is digressing a little bit, but I guess I'm trying to say that Affirmative Action has done more harm than good by trying to make up for the past. I think that it's lost sight of what it's trying to prevent, making what we fear a reality. We are hiring people based on their heritage so that we can meet a legal requirement when someone else may be far more qualified for the job. We're accepting students into schools and throwing money at them when there are kids who are just as deserving, except for the fact that they don't have some kind of past stigma that they have to compensate for.
I live in a functional family trying to support five members on an income just enough for us and no more. We are capable of paying for education for ourselves, but we'll have to take loans out and dig our hole of debt even deeper. How is it that the minorities can get away with being the same as us and getting preference?
I'm NOT saying that whites are better than everyone else, because that's BS and I'll be the first to tell you I have met my fair share of white morons. All I want is for these legal requirements for certain races to be given special treatment abolished. As overly optimistic and unrealistic this might be, I just think that we should put aside our color, our heritage, and just be who we are. The whole world would find a lot more quality in EQUALITY.
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Affirmative Action is slowly being erased from many places. For example, last year in Michigan (my home state) voters chose to ban affirmative action in Universities. The only problem with this is, that Universities look at students as a big dollar sign. On average, the majority of people who are not a part of the upper or middle class are minorities. So, if they do not have as much money to contribute to these universities doesn't that put them at a disadvantage?
Also, Affirmative Action is just for black people. It's for all minorities. Whether that person be black, hispanic, asian, white, handicap, a woman, a man etc. Affirmative Action is about equal opprotunity for EVERYBODY.
http://www.affirmativeaction.org/about.html
That's a good website about a group that supports Affirmative Action and explains their goals.
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All the believers, they were smiling and winking at each other, I could honestly say I was scared for my life.
Oh, indeed I know that it's being slowly done away with, and am indeed I agree that some of the poorer happen to be minorities. However, I wrote this because I was so fed up about hearing about everyone who has some different identity from the white person (this really sounds crudely racist, forgive me, I cannot find another way to say it) getting all this money thrown at them because they are of different heritage, regardless of how good their grades are.
And I don't doubt for a second that Affirmative Action isn't just for blacks (if that's what you're trying to say). The friend I mentioned is actually half Puerto-Rican. I understand the motives behind it, but I see it as reverse discrimination.