Friday, January 22, 1999
Affirmative action gives less privileged a chance
Campus should reflect diversity found in society, workforce
By Kristi Nakamura
When I graduated from high school and prepared to leave for
UCLA, my mother told me that I was embarking on the best years of
my life. She told me that college was about more than just academic
learning, that it was about social learning and life. Now that I am
in my fourth year as a Bruin I see that, as usual, she was right. I
will leave UCLA in June a more enlightened and socially conscious
person than when I came in.
I have to admit that although I was raised in an underprivileged
section of the Bay Area, I personally was quite spoiled. When my AP
English teacher told us there was no money for books and that to
complete the course we would have to purchase them ourselves, I did
not blink an eye at the $100 reading list he assigned. I gave the
list to my mom and the books "magically" appeared on my bed before
I came home from school the next day.
This is the type of privilege I brought with me to college. My
parents had both put themselves through school, and my father
worked hard so that my sisters and I would not have to bear that
burden. He believes school should be my full-time job.
I am almost ashamed to admit that things came so easily for me,
especially since I was so self-involved and apathetic during my
first years at UCLA. It frustrates me to know that other people
have had to go through so much more to get the same education and
that their right to even be here is questioned everyday. I am not
sure that under the same pressures I would have the strength of
character or the determination to continue fighting for my
education.
The concept that everybody is given different privileges in
society was not new to me, but it took a series of tough lessons
for me to truly understand how those privileges function.
Last year, I took a class about the education system in the
United States. It was the first class I have ever taken that truly
inspired me to take the things I was learning outside the
classroom. I wrote a letter in response to a Viewpoint column to
correct what I had learned in my class was blatant, hurtful and
hateful misinformation regarding affirmative action and students of
color.
I thought my article read like an academic paper, full of facts
and figures quoted from the L.A. Times and other moderate sources.
But I guess my letter offended someone because the evening my
article ran in the Daily Bruin, I received a death threat over
e-mail.
After the initial terror and bureaucratic runaround, I started
to feel angry. A male friend told me I was worried about nothing. I
suppose it’s important to mention that my male friend is also over
six feet tall, weighing in at 200-plus pounds. If I were him, I
wouldn’t worry either! Honestly, I don’t think I would have even
gotten the threat if I had been him. It’s much easier to scare a
5-foot-2 Asian girl.
How many men instinctively feel the need to worry about whether
or not it is safe for them to walk home alone after dark? That is
the privilege of being male, though, and I don’t think it’s really
something many of us ever consciously think about. In this same
way, I never realized how much harder going to school would be for
a student who also had to work full time to eat, live or support a
family.
Those are just a few of the privileges some of us are privy to
that others are not. There are so many societal norms that make
life easier for one group of people over another. Not that
privilege is bad or that we should feel guilty for having such
advantages, but we should recognize our privilege and work
collectively harder to change this university and society in
general.
We are all privileged in some way and maybe it’s something we
need to take into account before we pass judgment on others.
Everyone has their own unique talents, aptitudes and special
circumstances. Sometimes there are events beyond our control that
make life more stressful and are reflected negatively in our
grades, our test scores and our social lives. I believe that is
what affirmative action takes into consideration.
College is supposed to prepare us to enter the workforce, but
how prepared will we actually be if the workforce we enter into is
diverse but our universities are not?
I am not advocating admitting underqualified students to UCLA to
meet "quotas." Quotas are illegal. I am merely suggesting an
extension of a process that is already in place. Currently, the UC
regents admit 50 to 75 percent of the student body at UC schools
based on test scores and GPA alone. This practice ensures that the
top students will be accepted.
The remaining students are chosen based on their essays and
other personal information. Affirmative action only makes race and
gender an additional consideration in deciding which of the many
qualified applicants to admit.
There are so many negative stigmas attached to the words
"affirmative action," and I believe that much of what we think we
know is untrue or only half true.
In my four years at UCLA I have met some of the most
intelligent, enlightened and inspiring people. Many of them were
admitted under affirmative action. It pains me to think that
without affirmative action I might never have met these people, not
because they lack qualification, but just because they do not have
the same privileges that I do.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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