I am so saddened today to hear that affirmative action is gone. This program gave so much hope to my students in diverse schools. I have read of the lament of an acquaintance, a Black man, who is a college career and success specialist at a local high school–the hopelessness is palpable, and the only thing that gives me hope is that maybe character will matter more. And that race and racial adversity is definitely a tragedy, but it is a tragedy that builds character, and that there will be more ways of sharing racial experiences that is valued by new admissions processes.
I think that there is a lot that needs to be said for creating more robust mentoring frameworks now that things are going to be more difficult regarding navigating higher ed and the admissions process.
I feel like the United States is going back in time, and I am worried for LGBTQIA+ people and people of color, and also for women.
It seems like all of the advances we have come into over the last century are all up for grabs if we don’t remain vigilant. Strange as it may seem, for this reason I actually have stopped drinking. We must remain aware, and I don’t want to numb myself to the injustice that is going on all around. There is nothing routine about what is going on now, and I don’t want drinking as part of my daily routine.
Affirmative action made sense because of the gross injustices suffered by BIPOC students in schools that are not as demanding and rigorous as privileged schools (where largely white populations go, often enforcing distance from racial minorities). I don’t see how this is democratic either, given that we are historical beings and in the United States we have systematically oppressed BIPOC populations and limited opportunities.
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