Affirmative Action

Rant of the day: I don't like Affirmative Action.

You're surprised, I know. Dislike of Affirmative Action? From a white male? No...

Here's the problem with the program... skin color has nothing to do with disadvantage.

To my understanding, Affirmative Action was created to give the disadvantaged an advantage. Our country's history is bad when it comes to treatment of non-whites and non-males. (As well as every other country on earth, but I digress...)

I get that. It stinks. Countless individuals were horribly abused and lived sub-par lives because America was dead racist and sexist.

But I had nothing to do this kind of institutionalized racism.Neither did you. Well, if you're old enough, maybe you did.

The point is, I don't understand why we need to atone for the sins of our fathers.

And even if we do need to pay for the wrongs of the past, using racism to fix racism doesn't make any sense to me.

Which brings me to my first point: the color of one's skin has nothing to do with one's abilities or opportunities. It's meaningless. There are plenty of white kids who live in trailer parks with one parent and are kept out of school. And there are plenty of Native American kids who grow up in the suburbs with plenty of money for extracurricular activities and earn 4.0 GPA's.

If we want to help disadvantaged kids get into college, let's do it right. Look at factors like household income, where they live, their parents' level of education, etc. These factors actually matter.

Not that the system will change any time soon. It feels too good to battle the monsters of bigotry and racism.