One thing that has been especially wonderful about my experience at UMBC so far has been my exposure to an environment made up of people from so many diverse backgrounds. Each person brings their own perspective and worldview placed a varied distance on the spectrum from my own. This kind of exposure has both allowed me to broaden my own view of the world and helped me to further define what I think, the end result being that I have been able to form opinions and beliefs that acknowledge concerns and ideas I never would have considered before.
UMBC often provides me with an excellent forum for “trying out” my opinions and beliefs through discussion and debate with my fellow students. I think of these largely as learning experiences for myself rather than opportunities to change another’s mind, as the exercise helps me to further refine what I think as well as raises points I may have neglected to consider.
Yesterday I had a series of very informative debates with some of my fellow SGA members on the best method for pursing affirmative action. How can we ensure that as many people as possible from the many diverse background that popular our country have the opportunity to pursue things like higher education? Distilled, my opinion is this:
Dispersal of aid for underprivileged groups should be based on an individual’s performance given his or her socioeconomic background as opposed to race.
What exactly does this mean? I think that surveying the entire country, noticing racial disparities, and applying aid based on this information is an incorrect and flawed method that serves to exacerbate racial divisiveness. Instead, the performance of students should be evaluated based on their socioeconomic background and aid applied accordingly. While the end result may in fact be that aid is distributed in a similar if not identical method as before, the mentality behind is vastly superior. Rather than singling people out as being a member of an “underperforming race” these people can be seen as individuals striving to overcome a sub-ideal background and needing assistance. On the other side of the socioeconomic coin, those who have a more uplifted status would be expected to perform better.
But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.
Luke 12:48 (New Living Translation)
I strongly believe that this style of thinking would not only help people who need it, it would also reward those who excel—all without resorting to destructive racial profiling.
Oh, and since I had to delete all of my old notes and reimport the most recent ones to try and get this Facebook thing to work, above are two versions of Mara Jade I made with Lego minifigures. They’re both happy because, while they come from different background (flesh-toned and traditional yellow), they are being treated as individuals.