According to MSNBC.com, the University of California system has reached a milestone by declaring that it is now “race-blind” in the admissions process.
After reading this article, I’m not too pleased. Here’s an excerpt:
The debate over affirmative action begins with how you define affirmative action.
To Connerly, it’s a system of “racial preferences” that drive a wedge between people. To his opponents, it’s a way to recognize that not everyone starts with the same advantages.
The debate came to UC in 1995 when, in a bitterly contested 14-10 vote, the system’s governing Board of Regents voted to stop looking at applicants’ race, effective for graduate students in 1997 and for undergrads the following year.
In 1996, Connerly took the movement statewide with Proposition 209, which banned consideration of race in public hiring, contracting and education.
I suppose that whenever arguments like this come up, I get a tad bit frustrated because I feel that race DOES matter. It determines, in some senses, what your experiences in the world are, how your perspectives are shaped and maintained. I don’t want people to blind to my race. I want you to see it. We don’t need to be race-blind. We need to be race-tolerant. We need to be at a point where we accept people and love them for their differences, and in order to do that, we need not attempt to be blind to them.
What do y’all think?
life beyond the well... 