In response to several feedbacks regarding affirmative action, let's hear a perspective from the other side of the fence where there is no green grass.
I would like to start with a quote from the ACLU executive director, Ira Glasser (who retired in 2001): "Eighty percent of the poor in New York City are black and Latino; the unemployment rate for young black men hovers around 40 percent; a large number of black Americans who use or deal in drugs are arrested while the same activities by white Americans are largely ignored; 80 percent of the Americans who die from curable diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, and gallbladder disease are black; and few white Americans advocate spending money on the kind of programs that would eliminate many of these phenomena."
For universities or colleges to give racial, ethnic and gender minorities, as well as economically disadvantaged people, a 10 percent or so point advantage in consideration of admissions is definitely in the interest of potentially having the unheard voices of these diverse populations heard on our campuses across America. After attending these schools, these same minorities might be able to benefit from jobs where they will be able to afford health insurance to prevent their death from curable diseases. Our college campuses should reflect our entire country and not just the suburban glass bubble.
I would like to finish with a paraphrase from Ruth Sidel in "Keeping Women and Children Last." In 1993, 77.4 percent of all Americans living in poverty were women and children.
My conclusion: We don't need less affirmative action, we need more affirmative action.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
