Copyright © 2023-2024. All rights reserved by Suzanne Sunshower.
Well, it finally happened! A handful of folks, who have used their entry and opportunities (however they got them) to the utmost advantage, have decided that some other folks were gaining entry and opportunity by unfair means – that is to say, by not being Caucasian.
Ever since I’ve been grown, the beast known as Affirmative Action has been used both as a litigative reason for non-entry to college (AKA "reverse discrimination" used by Caucasians) as well as an explanation for entry (AKA ‘they’ got in because they weren’t Caucasian).
Thoughtfully, however, the Supremes did leave affirmative action on the table for schools that prep for war. So, the same American citizens deemed to be using an unfair advantage for college entry (to become teachers or school principals, etc) are still good enough to wantonly enter spaces preparing them for the opportunity to possibly die for us.
Although Dad’s 1964 piece was concerned with the appearance of “Affirmative Action” (before it was a real thing anywhere) on the jobs front, I happened upon it just as our newest, weirdest version of the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college applications, and I think they go together. In the end, we are talking not just about entry to schools but opportunities afterwards in the workforce too, as well as preparedness for the workforce (be it for People of Color or for Caucasians).
What do you think when you hear the term “Affirmative Action”? I noticed that, over the years, the discussion moved away from affirmative action being about “equal opportunity” in jobs (like in my dad’s day), to being about “diversity” on campus. Campus diversity (among other things) helps to prepare less-exposed students to aspects of real-world life such as meeting people of other colors as well as presumably different backgrounds. Which, we would think, would be a good thing.
During the tumultuous summer week in 2023, when we learned the news from the Supreme Court regarding college affirmative action, I heard a business reporter on NPR note that campus diversity was better for the Business bottom line. In short, more heads coming together from different places was better for Profit. His concern was that Business might now have to find a new funnel other than college campuses from which to recruit their new people, or would have to somehow raise up their own crop, if the new Decision about colleges ends up decreasing diversity at business schools.
In the late-1980s/early-90s, I read an article in the Wayne State University student newspaper about how when students of color and Caucasian students gathered at tables in the Student Commons, none or few of those tables were racially mixed. Black students who were interviewed said they sat together because they weren’t invited over to other tables or felt uncomfortable in the Commons because they were stared at by Caucasian students. Other students of color expressed the same concern.
When the student reporter specifically asked a Caucasian business student (from suburban Detroit) if he ever sat with Black students, he gestured to a table of students from India, and said, “They never come over.” Implying that ‘they’ would be welcome if ‘they’ did. However, the connection that the reporter clearly desired to make was that this Caucasian student couldn’t tell the difference between the Indian and Black students, or didn’t think it important to do so. As in, students who were ‘other’ to him were just ‘other.’
I remember thinking, This guy’s going into business? How the hell can he do business if he doesn’t know who people are, or worse, cannot see them? It also struck me as odd that it was considered incumbent upon the students of color to assert themselves by joining a table of Caucasian students who, perhaps, had stared at them. I also thought it idiotic that someone who was a business major didn’t wish to expand his own opportunities by meeting as many different people as possible. What kind of business mind was that?
I also remember, over time, being glad when the business sector at-large finally began to suture the color gap, even if it was just for profit. Many of us remember when there were no non-Caucasians in commercials... until Business figured out that they’d reap more profits by advertising to everyone. I read somewhere in the 1970s, “I personally know some Black people with bad breath, why aren’t there any Black people in mouthwash commercials?” and laughed, but also agreed. Why would someone exclude anyone they wished to sell to?
Over the many years, my primary beef with discussions about affirmative action in college admissions was always the implication that a lowering of standards was how Black kids (but rarely other non-Caucasian groups) got into college. As a Black student who usually scored near or well within the 90th percentile on standardized tests, including various IQ tests and the GRE (grad school admissions test), this continual conflation of affirmative action with lowered standards was always repugnant to me.
Listening to news around this 2023 Supreme decision, I heard mention of the term “model minority.” Asian folks were used as an example of a model minority because, it was offered, they can be plunked into school and do well, even as recent immigrants. Yet, it was implied when not stated, Black people cannot – Black people are not a model minority. To which I grumbled, “Maybe that’s because we’ve historically had to go to court (or agitate for a constitutional Amendment) to make room for ourselves, while everyone else got plunked in later – on our dime and years of sacrifice. Years (if not centuries) that can make for a very different field of dreams – as well as outcomes. Even more unfortunate, around this topic, I’ve read and heard (via NPR) that Asians who believe in the model minority myth tend to think that Black Americans simply haven’t been trying hard enough to do well (all the years since slavery), and so some Asians even snub Black Americans for that belief.
I recall watching a PBS documentary wherein an Asian-American kid was disinterested in learning about the Civil Rights era (and the 'idea' of systemic racial discrimination) in his classroom [in a state where teaching true U.S. history was not yet outlawed], because he thought Asian immigrants had disproved the 'idea' of discrimination by their individual successes in the U.S.
And then last summer, something else I was reminded of, pertaining to this same ‘model’ minority myth, was the effect of “selective immigration” – whereby only the best educated of some cultures are accepted for entry into the U.S., which may give them a leg up, even in this racially fractured society. So, all in all, it’s no wonder how perceptions can get skewed - even within and among various communities of color.
When I entered Central Michigan University in 1979, the student population was over 16,000, with only 400+ being non-Caucasian (and definitely not all of them were Black). It would have been a far more caustic experience for me, had a few Caucasian students not stepped up with me to meet the overt racism I experienced. I mean things like, beer hurled at me by Caucasian students, yelling, “Go back to Africa!" at parties, etc.
And while the defending Caucasian students stepped up because they were horrified by the bizarre and barbaric behavior, I believe it was also because they had sense enough to value the opportunity they had to befriend a decent kid (me) whom they wouldn’t have met back in their home towns or suburban neighborhoods.
On Juneteenth Day of 2023, my best friend from college (a Caucasian girl from a small, rural Michigan town who lived next door to me in the dorm my freshman year) wrote me a nice note telling me how she treasured our long friendship made possible by "freedom". When I read it, I could only think of all the kids who may never meet, and all the friends not made across worlds – if fewer kids of different colors become unable to meet up at college. How will future students be ready for the human world, if they never have the opportunity to meet people who are not like them in college?
Allowing each American a fair shake, is obviously what my dad was saying – meaning, the old slice of the American pie. That sentiment means as much now as it did then. But so does the reality that just because someone is trying to get their own slice doesn’t mean they are taking yours. You don’t own the whole pie, NO ONE DOES. Trying to stop other Americans from entry to a basic tool like education (which is supposed to lead to more opportunity) is not only un-American but it also means that you are afraid to compete on your own MERITS.
Who is the real loser when we stop Americans from gaining education? Well, we all are. Because, we lose the folks who want to become something else (like, teachers and school principals) as well as the people who would choose to be something more and better than they were – after meeting them. Thus, we must PUSH on!
Fording the Inland Sea
(for Suzy from CMU)
The sea-like waters of Lake Huron unfurl to meet us,
but the dog is suspicious and skittish.
It’s hard to engage (up close) with something
one has only gazed at (or dismissed) from afar.
A Great Lakes conservationist hands me her card
while scouting the sky, says she’s worried about raptors.
I smile and nod, yet think: That is a fine endeavor,
but who will save us?
Last week, my bestie from college told me:
“You are the only friend I kept from college.”
The rural white girl and the urban Black girl – now
in their 60’s, friends
for over forty years. We dipped toes
into vast waters, then forged an unbreakable bond.
What if we had not met at college…?
My dog will return to this shoreline and
eventually wet her paws in Huron’s vastness.
I will give her the opportunity to know
what she has only seen from afar,
because I want her to embrace new experiences.
Unlike for humans – for her,
the seemingly endless vastness of this one thing
will disappear.
Copyright © 2023-2024. All rights reserved by Suzanne Sunshower.
Well, it finally happened! A handful of folks, who have used their entry and opportunities (however they got them) to the utmost advantage, have decided that some other folks were gaining entry and opportunity by unfair means – that is to say, by not being Caucasian.
Ever since I’ve been grown, the beast known as Affirmative Action has been used both as a litigative reason for non-entry to college (AKA "reverse discrimination" used by Caucasians) as well as an explanation for entry (AKA ‘they’ got in because they weren’t Caucasian).
Thoughtfully, however, the Supremes did leave affirmative action on the table for schools that prep for war. So, the same American citizens deemed to be using an unfair advantage for college entry (to become teachers or school principals, etc) are still good enough to wantonly enter spaces preparing them for the opportunity to possibly die for us.
Although Dad’s 1964 piece was concerned with the appearance of “Affirmative Action” (before it was a real thing anywhere) on the jobs front, I happened upon it just as our newest, weirdest version of the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college applications, and I think they go together. In the end, we are talking not just about entry to schools but opportunities afterwards in the workforce too, as well as preparedness for the workforce (be it for People of Color or for Caucasians).
What do you think when you hear the term “Affirmative Action”? I noticed that, over the years, the discussion moved away from affirmative action being about “equal opportunity” in jobs (like in my dad’s day), to being about “diversity” on campus. Campus diversity (among other things) helps to prepare less-exposed students to aspects of real-world life such as meeting people of other colors as well as presumably different backgrounds. Which, we would think, would be a good thing.
During the tumultuous summer week in 2023, when we learned the news from the Supreme Court regarding college affirmative action, I heard a business reporter on NPR note that campus diversity was better for the Business bottom line. In short, more heads coming together from different places was better for Profit. His concern was that Business might now have to find a new funnel other than college campuses from which to recruit their new people, or would have to somehow raise up their own crop, if the new Decision about colleges ends up decreasing diversity at business schools.
In the late-1980s/early-90s, I read an article in the Wayne State University student newspaper about how when students of color and Caucasian students gathered at tables in the Student Commons, none or few of those tables were racially mixed. Black students who were interviewed said they sat together because they weren’t invited over to other tables or felt uncomfortable in the Commons because they were stared at by Caucasian students. Other students of color expressed the same concern.
When the student reporter specifically asked a Caucasian business student (from suburban Detroit) if he ever sat with Black students, he gestured to a table of students from India, and said, “They never come over.” Implying that ‘they’ would be welcome if ‘they’ did. However, the connection that the reporter clearly desired to make was that this Caucasian student couldn’t tell the difference between the Indian and Black students, or didn’t think it important to do so. As in, students who were ‘other’ to him were just ‘other.’
I remember thinking, This guy’s going into business? How the hell can he do business if he doesn’t know who people are, or worse, cannot see them? It also struck me as odd that it was considered incumbent upon the students of color to assert themselves by joining a table of Caucasian students who, perhaps, had stared at them. I also thought it idiotic that someone who was a business major didn’t wish to expand his own opportunities by meeting as many different people as possible. What kind of business mind was that?
I also remember, over time, being glad when the business sector at-large finally began to suture the color gap, even if it was just for profit. Many of us remember when there were no non-Caucasians in commercials... until Business figured out that they’d reap more profits by advertising to everyone. I read somewhere in the 1970s, “I personally know some Black people with bad breath, why aren’t there any Black people in mouthwash commercials?” and laughed, but also agreed. Why would someone exclude anyone they wished to sell to?
Over the many years, my primary beef with discussions about affirmative action in college admissions was always the implication that a lowering of standards was how Black kids (but rarely other non-Caucasian groups) got into college. As a Black student who usually scored near or well within the 90th percentile on standardized tests, including various IQ tests and the GRE (grad school admissions test), this continual conflation of affirmative action with lowered standards was always repugnant to me.
Listening to news around this 2023 Supreme decision, I heard mention of the term “model minority.” Asian folks were used as an example of a model minority because, it was offered, they can be plunked into school and do well, even as recent immigrants. Yet, it was implied when not stated, Black people cannot – Black people are not a model minority. To which I grumbled, “Maybe that’s because we’ve historically had to go to court (or agitate for a constitutional Amendment) to make room for ourselves, while everyone else got plunked in later – on our dime and years of sacrifice. Years (if not centuries) that can make for a very different field of dreams – as well as outcomes. Even more unfortunate, around this topic, I’ve read and heard (via NPR) that Asians who believe in the model minority myth tend to think that Black Americans simply haven’t been trying hard enough to do well (all the years since slavery), and so some Asians even snub Black Americans for that belief.
I recall watching a PBS documentary wherein an Asian-American kid was disinterested in learning about the Civil Rights era (and the 'idea' of systemic racial discrimination) in his classroom [in a state where teaching true U.S. history was not yet outlawed], because he thought Asian immigrants had disproved the 'idea' of discrimination by their individual successes in the U.S.
And then last summer, something else I was reminded of, pertaining to this same ‘model’ minority myth, was the effect of “selective immigration” – whereby only the best educated of some cultures are accepted for entry into the U.S., which may give them a leg up, even in this racially fractured society. So, all in all, it’s no wonder how perceptions can get skewed - even within and among various communities of color.
When I entered Central Michigan University in 1979, the student population was over 16,000, with only 400+ being non-Caucasian (and definitely not all of them were Black). It would have been a far more caustic experience for me, had a few Caucasian students not stepped up with me to meet the overt racism I experienced. I mean things like, beer hurled at me by Caucasian students, yelling, “Go back to Africa!" at parties, etc.
And while the defending Caucasian students stepped up because they were horrified by the bizarre and barbaric behavior, I believe it was also because they had sense enough to value the opportunity they had to befriend a decent kid (me) whom they wouldn’t have met back in their home towns or suburban neighborhoods.
On Juneteenth Day of 2023, my best friend from college (a Caucasian girl from a small, rural Michigan town who lived next door to me in the dorm my freshman year) wrote me a nice note telling me how she treasured our long friendship made possible by "freedom". When I read it, I could only think of all the kids who may never meet, and all the friends not made across worlds – if fewer kids of different colors become unable to meet up at college. How will future students be ready for the human world, if they never have the opportunity to meet people who are not like them in college?
Allowing each American a fair shake, is obviously what my dad was saying – meaning, the old slice of the American pie. That sentiment means as much now as it did then. But so does the reality that just because someone is trying to get their own slice doesn’t mean they are taking yours. You don’t own the whole pie, NO ONE DOES. Trying to stop other Americans from entry to a basic tool like education (which is supposed to lead to more opportunity) is not only un-American but it also means that you are afraid to compete on your own MERITS.
Who is the real loser when we stop Americans from gaining education? Well, we all are. Because, we lose the folks who want to become something else (like, teachers and school principals) as well as the people who would choose to be something more and better than they were – after meeting them. Thus, we must PUSH on!
Fording the Inland Sea
(for Suzy from CMU)
The sea-like waters of Lake Huron unfurl to meet us,
but the dog is suspicious and skittish.
It’s hard to engage (up close) with something
one has only gazed at (or dismissed) from afar.
A Great Lakes conservationist hands me her card
while scouting the sky, says she’s worried about raptors.
I smile and nod, yet think: That is a fine endeavor,
but who will save us?
Last week, my bestie from college told me:
“You are the only friend I kept from college.”
The rural white girl and the urban Black girl – now
in their 60’s, friends
for over forty years. We dipped toes
into vast waters, then forged an unbreakable bond.
What if we had not met at college…?
My dog will return to this shoreline and
eventually wet her paws in Huron’s vastness.
I will give her the opportunity to know
what she has only seen from afar,
because I want her to embrace new experiences.
Unlike for humans – for her,
the seemingly endless vastness of this one thing
will disappear.