A plea for affirmative action
I experience life through different eyes, but more importantly, in different skin. I live each day a little bit differently solely because of the color of my skin. I didn't ask for it, and I don't blame anyone. I can't trade my blackness, so I live with it. I hold my head high and live each day to the fullest while refusing to let a color dictate the way I live my life. But, sadly, a color does.
I don't live in a world of strict doctrines, but I do remember some things. I get ready to shock people when I use proper and sophisticated English. I prepare for a new white friend to ask if s/he can touch, or \pet"" my hair. I prepare to be relegated or basically shooed away to a land of degrading stereotypes. I ready myself for disappointment long before it comes-bracing myself to be knocked down and to get back up, only to practically shatter stereotypes and rebuild a genuine, beautiful black image.
And if not for these reasons alone, this is why affirmative action is needed. I live an entirely different life experience that only about 12 percent of the rest of our American society does-I as well as millions of other black Americans. We black workers, professionals and students evidently overcome a lot to get where we want to be (if some individuals wish to argue, I ask if they'd prefer to be black). We overlook daily discouraging stereotypes and overcome people that still stand in our way. And then here we are, handing in our applications and resumes with the determination that got us to the desk of that administrative assistant.
Affirmative action considers the essential American spirit of hard work and determination that gets people where they want to be. It considers that the rockier road of the same distance to success makes for a better traveler and navigator for those roads to come. So instead of staring at that traveler who walks the same streets you do and who rides the bus with you, smile and commend him for not only his qualifications, but for his strength of character.
