Jeff Oliver’s commentary “Judging people by the color of their skin” (ODE, May 29) was short-sighted and disappointing. In response to the University of Michigan law school’s admissions policy, which allows the applicant’s race to be used as one of several deciding factors, Oliver argued that “just because a student checks a different box on their application form doesn’t mean she has experience any more valuable than anyone else’s.” This statement is entirely untrue. If a student checks a box other than “white,” and if “she” checks a box other than “male,” the student has the experience of being a member of groups that have been deprived of equal opportunity since the founding of this country. Moreover, the student has the experience of being a member of a group immensely under-represented in universities, law schools and our nation’s legislature.
Oliver relied on a Webster’s Dictionary and the act of checking boxes in defining diversity and denouncing affirmative action. But the real issue goes far beyond these simple examples. Diversity isn’t just good for “improving the quality of education,” as Oliver suggested. When a school prides itself in its diversity, it prides itself in offering minorities a chance they were never given before. There has been one black governor in U.S. history. And needless to say, there has never been a U.S. president that was anything but a white male. What Oliver doesn’t realize is that white males have privilege. They don’t have to be afraid of going to small towns or rural areas. They don’t have to be afraid of going to college and not fitting in because of the color of their skin. They don’t have to be afraid of sharing their dreams of attending law school or becoming a leader.
In order to evolve from the disgraceful status quo, people like Oliver need to look outside of themselves for a moment. They should stop feeling threatened by affirmative action or intimidated by the all-inclusive ethnic student unions. The only reason these institutions exist is to educate and progress without being hindered by conservative skeptics. In order to get to a point where universities can be colorblind, they need initially to strive to be colorful. And this requires giving minorities a chance to attend college when they most likely have parents and grandparents who couldn’t get a higher education and thus couldn’t provide funds and preparation necessary for their children.
If colleges ignore race in the admissions process, they ignore the inequalities that still exist in America. The problem of racial discrimination won’t fix itself, and if denied or disregarded, will not change. Women and people of color, being fewer in numbers, have to be allowed in by those in the powerful majority. The Civil Rights movement would not have been so successful if it weren’t for white liberals who were willing to give minorities a chance. For some, the boxes they check are doors that, if opened, can liberate them from oppression and completely transform the leadership of our nation.
I know that Mr. Oliver, who was the TA for my ethnic studies FIG, is a good-hearted individual. But it won’t be until people who share his beliefs stop thinking in their self-interest that we will be able to achieve diversity.