Editor,
The recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School has created a great deal of controversy in America for all the wrong reasons.
Americans are once again going back to the archaic practice of "Us vs. Them" - white America against minority America - rather than working together for the common good of making the United States better for all Americans in all academic and professional fields.
The staff editorial in the Daily Lobo said, "[Affirmative action] has gone from the purist notion of equal opportunity for all to the idea that all underprivileged peoples deserve compensation for being neglected either in the academic or the professional arena, to the assumption that all minorities and women are underprivileged."
It is true in America that not all minorities and women are underprivileged. However, it is a safe conjecture to say that most minorities and women are underprivileged. It is because of affirmative action that the ethnic, racial and gender gaps in America are beginning to close.
Extreme conservatives wish to create a political issue rather than discussing what America can do to end the need for affirmative action. If this discussion were to happen, Americans would realize that affirmative action is our only way of giving the underprivileged a glimmer of hope for a better future. Sadly, federally funded programs that give minorities the tools to help create a level playing field are the first to be cut when there is a fictional need for tax relief for the richest Americans.
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If these conservatives wanted to reduce the need for affirmative action, they would be storming Washington, demanding increased funding for all schools in America, especially elementary through high school. The reason that affirmative action exists in academia is because a child in the ghettos of New York will not get the same quality education as a child in Beverly Hills.
Finally, the editors wrote, "For students who prefer to be rewarded for their merits and skills rather than their race or gender, there's always California, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana - states where affirmative action in higher education has been outlawed." Given that California has seen a drastic reduction in the amount of minority students who are accepted, if you are a minority you have extreme odds against you.
In Texas, three white men dragged a black man to his death and nobody seemed to care, especially then Gov. George Bush. Mississippi is still represented by a senator who believes that having a segregationist as president would have made America a better place. And we cannot forget about Louisiana's vicious history with equal opportunity and civil rights.
America needs to stop taking its anger out on minorities and shift that passion to the real problem of unequal educational opportunities in America for all Americans.
Paul C. Campbell
UNM Student
