When I was in seventh grade, I was late to school… a lot. My first class was band and every time I was late, I would get moved down a “chair.” For those of you who were never in band, there is first chair, second chair, third chair – after that it really doesn’t matter but the closer you are to the first, the better you are at playing that instrument.
Well, I’d gotten my act together and stopped missing the bus and I wanted to get myself out of the nosebleed section and get to first chair. My band teacher was holding auditions, and this was my opportunity to prove I had clarinet talent.
He held what they call “blind auditions” where the two competing students would sit in a room and both play the music piece. Whoever played the best got to advance to the next round, thus moving up a chair. I was knocking them out one by one. Then it was time for me to compete for first chair. The girl that held the first chair went first and she messed up.
Then it was my turn, and I was breezing through the piece, and she threw herself, literally her whole body, onto my music stand, causing me to not only mess up but completely stop. No one could see what she did because we were in a room blindly auditioning. I told the music teacher what happened, but I just looked like a sore loser. And there was no way to prove what she had done to me.
That is exactly what affirmative action did. It secretly and unfairly robbed those who were qualified and talented of their rightful place and inserted someone who threw their weight with other circumstances on the qualifications scale, and no one could know for certain who the culprit was.
The 6-3 Supreme Court decision rightly upended a long-held racist and unconstitutional federal program where Asian American students in particular were applying to colleges and had to perform twice as high on tests amongst other requirements that were different from other students – while black American students did not have to perform to the basic requirements. Instead, schools would take other non-academic circumstances into consideration. This is racist and against the Constitution of the United States of America. There should be equality, period.
Although, this is a simple concept, you hear people like Jemele Hill accusing Asian Americans of “carrying water for white supremacy.”
Even Michelle Obama chimed in to support the race-based exceptions in schools, saying “some have parents who graduated from the same school. Others have families who can afford coaches to help them run faster or hit a ball harder. Others go to high schools with lavish resources for tutors and extensive standardized test prep that help them score higher on college entrance exams.”
Although I do not support the legacy acceptance into universities, I see nothing wrong with affording your children good coaches, tutors and test prep help that a family has worked hard to provide. The part that Michelle misses is that those parents are not bringing in the federal government to provide these resources for their kids. Parents are supposed to act in the best interest of their children. We should be encouraging that behavior and not allowing the government to take on the role of parenting.
The assumption that ending affirmative action will automatically cause minority children to be left out is the real problem. We should expect every child to do their best and achieve their highest potential. That can only be done by putting in the hard work and earning your way to promotions and achievement. The confidence that comes with knowing you succeeded on your own merit and when you do fail – learning how to get back up – is what creates individuals who will know how to handle life when it gets tough and find innovative ways to solve problems. Those people will be valuable to society and will thrive no matter their circumstances.
As Americans, we should encourage the younger generations to be everything they can be, not the pathetic mindset of “your skin color has earned you a behind the scenes shortcut.”
The more we can encourage all young people to look inward instead of outward, realize what they can do to be an asset to America, the more legitimate progress we will see.
