I do not know much about the Affirmative Action, but I was talking about it in my AP Language class and we came up with some very interesting discussions. First of all, the government sponsors the Affirmative Action in order to give money to culturally “disadvantaged” individuals for educational purposes. I read Richard Rodriguez’, essay, “None of this is Fair.” It is about his experience as a reaper of the Affirmative Actions’ benefits. It was some very interesting food for thought.
He discussed the fact that since he was a Mexican-American, he received all kinds of financial aid from the government while his fellow classmates received nothing for all their hard work. After graduate school, he received multiple teaching offers from top schools like Yale while his peers struggled to find a job.
At the end of his essay, he comes clean and says that the Affirmative Action actually hinders all majority middleclass students. This is a very good point and very brave to say, especially since he took advantage of the action throughout his secondary education.
What bugged me was the way Rodriguez handled his situation. Instead of taking the teaching job at Yale or some other good school, he declined. He wasted all the time, hard work, and money that the government, his professors, and his peers put in for him. Instead of setting an example and advocating for a change, he simply rejected everything that he worked for. In my opinion, he should have taken the jobs and used them to his advantage to change the way the Affirmative Action was organized.
then he can't advocate for change without being seen as a hypocrite. Whether or not he is, it hurts his credibility and makes him less convincing. You have a good point about wasting all that effort - I guess it depends how fervently you oppose affirmative action. I lean towards race-neutrality, but I'd prolly take the job for selfish reasons.
Nice blog.
You seem to have a good understanding of why it is unfair. If we ever want racism to stop then the government needs to stop the government sanctioned racism that Affirmative Action currently is.
I have no problem with lifting people up. I think it should be done in a race neutral manner that focuses on the relatively objective measure of economic circumstances. In the long run, the results would probably be about the same in that it would mainly be minorities who benefited. The difference would be that the disgusting and hateful racist element would be gone and that economically poor whites kids would not be disciminated against by their own government simply because of their skin color.
I am ethnically half Hispanic. My mother was born in Cuba and Spanish was her first language. Like a fair number of Cubans, both of my mother's parents were of white, blond, blue-eyed European extraction . In my mother's case, they were in-fact American citizens. My mother had Cuban citizenship resulting from her place of birth (like an anchor baby). Interestingly, my Mother has jet black hair, deep brown eyes, and olive skin and anyone with a basic understanding of genetics knows that it is a genetic impossibility for two blond, blue-eyed parents to have such a child. So my true genetic heritage is a mystery. I believe I am Hispanic by blood as well as geography. My father is decidely Scottish English and Irish extraction and I was raised with all the suppossed advantages (such as they were) of being white. But whenever I am confronted with one of the little check boxes that allows me to identify my race I always choose Hispanic. I've instructed my daughter to do the same (even though I pay full out-of-state tutition for her with no financial aid whatsoever).
My theory is that so many Americans are mixed up racially and ethnically that the way to fix the disgusting discrimnatory Affirmative Action system is to render it absurd by checking whatever box you feel like on the form. Make up a story and stick to it. Everybody deserves Affirmative Action! And if they challenge you, scream racism as loud as you can until the challenge stops. Civil disobediance works and what right does the government or a college have to dig into the deep dark secrets of your ancestor's reproductive history?
And by the way kudos on you for addressing this sensitive topic. Yesterday our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, called all Americans cowards for being unwilling to talk about the race issue. Your courage deserve commendation.
Woo hoo!! I agree with you!!
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away" ~Hilary Cooper