Friday, October 25, 1996
EDUCATION:
Affirmative action educates, does not promote separatismBy Amika
Maran
As I look across Westwood Plaza I’m swept up in emotion. Being
of mixed background, I’ve always had trouble with affirmative
action. Is it possible to have affirmative action and not have
reverse racism (as was intended)? Barring this, do we even know
what it at stake?
I see it rather simply. What you don’t know can scare you. My
little brother is only 5 years old and has already decided that he
doesn’t like "browner" kids. A far cry from my other little sister
who, now 10, was placed in an ESL class simply because she was
brown. Ignorance is what is at stake here.
It is ignorance, on behalf of a little boy who grew up among
Latinos and whites, who continues along this path, may never come
to know African Americans, and for this reason alone continues to
"not like browner people." Ignorance by educators who will continue
to pigeon-hole a little girl because she is brown. My little cousin
growing up in predominately-white Orange County at 5 years old once
turned to her brown mommy and asked, "Why don’t you look like the
other mommies?" My aunt’s answer was simple: "Because I’m
special."
This is the importance of affirmative action. Diversity, being
brown or being a women, is an asset  to education, to a
community, and to this country. If affirmative action is abolished
I won’t be able to look across Westwood Plaza at such richness in
diversity, beauty and ideas. Diversity educates. That is a type of
education that is priceless.
Some may question ethnic or gender-specific organizations,
citing the historical problems nationalism has caused. I look at it
this way  to know your roots is to know your worth. Don’t
take away a person’s worth, for it is only then that "they" may
become strong on the outside. Multiculturalism isn’t about loving
yourself until you drown in self importance. It is about knowing
who you are, sharing what you are and having everyone rejoicing in
the beauty of diversity.
As my father would say, "Affirmative action is imperative to a
democratic nation that hopes to rejoice in diversity." As my
Philippine mother would understand, no one can ever understand the
struggles faced by a person of color who has been pigeon-holed by
an ignorant institution (be it the education system or more
directly, the government) simply because of her color or
gender.
Others may suggest no such ignorance exists. If this is true,
then explain to me the madness behind a little girl in East St.
Louis escaping the poverty of a school where there is only one
working toilet for 700 students, where the playground is infested
by lead spewed out by the neighboring chemical plants, to go to a
predominately white school over the hill only to be passed a note
reading, "Go back to Africa." This was in 1991, in the United
States of America, in a classroom of fifth graders!
The struggle for a level playing field is far from over. Only
ignorance would allow for the savage inequalities that exist in our
public schools. We need to celebrate our diversity and continue to
combat ignorance bred by the continuing institutionalized racism.
Affirmative action isn’t about separatism; it’s about
educating.