Agreed and agreed. The thing is, though, we're a long way from when race, religion, sexual orientation or even gender won't be an issue. These are all topics that grasp the attention of the public. Look at the role that religion is going to play in the presidential race. And I’m not just talking about Mitt. O’bama talks about religion quite a bit and so does Hillary. McCain seems to make it a point not to talk about it as much, but his non-statements are statements, too. Then consider freaking ridiculous shows like VH1’s “White Rapper”. I can’t conceive of a more effective way to highlight race and the perceived differences between races. Race is shoved in our face every day.
Everyone who works in a company with an HR department deals with it everyday. Equal opportunity and affirmative action are everywhere. I can’t even decide whether or not these well-intentioned policies are good for minorities or not. Consider what it’s like to be given a promotion and then have a bunch of people whisper that the only reason you got it was that the HR knucklehead got to check the minority box. I can’t imagine that it’s a terribly empowering feeling. On the other hand, take college football. Approximately 3% of the 117 D1 schools have black head coaches. There is absolutely no way that you can convince me that there is a talent/qualification gap as wide as that between white and non-white head coaches. Honestly, if that’s how college football is I can’t imagine that there are similar problems in the rest of the workforce. Hence, I’m conflicted on this issue. But how can we ever put such things behind us when the U.S. government says that it is an issue?
It’s ingrained in us. I was sitting at a restaurant last night and the manager walked over, who happened to be black, to do the regular check up. And since this subject has been on my mind recently I kind of noticed what my thoughts were. I was conscious of the fact that he was black and I was on my best behavior because I really don’t want to do anything that he would be offended by or could be construed as racist. And it wasn’t that I was worried that my racist makeup was going to come out, because I don’t think that I am racist, but race was still an issue. I suspect that this has something to do with me growing up in an area that is not highly populated with black people, but that’s not the whole story. It also has to do with the fact that I can’t watch TV, listen to the radio or go to work without hearing about race.
What I’m saying here is that while I wish it wasn’t and don’t think that is should be an issue, it is. There is no way to avoid it in today's information society. It won’t be an issue an when the media stops jamming it down my throat. And that’s not going to happen as long as it’s still something that gets a ton of attention from society anytime it comes up.
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The premise of affirmative action is to create a "leveling of the field." Last year in a discussion about affirmative action in a constitutional law class, I was shocked when one of my classmates said that he had gone to a university where 30% of the freshman student body was minority largely because of school "diversity" mandates but that the upper classes were 5% minority. That is a horrible washout that says to me that in this sense affirmative action does not work.
He went on to say, though, that the minorities that did make it through the first year ([sarcasm]freshman year is so grueling at a public university[\sarcasm]) were mostly middle and upper class, and that he found them to be very similar to himself.
This presents two interesting propositions. First, the real divides in our country are not on racial lines, but are socio-economic. Second, exposure to other races (be it through affirmative action or some other "mixer") has the potential to improve our understanding of and affinity with other races, and to see differences in their proper contexts. Perhaps we should not give up on the affirmative action experiment with too much haste.
The friends that I have had that are of other races, ethnicities, creeds, etc., were my friends because of their values, not because of their color. People of other races that I have not liked or enjoyed spending time with were those with values widely displaced from mine.
There is nothing wrong with this in my eyes. The problem we face is that society sees racial bigotry where ideological incompatibility is often the core problem.
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