EbonyFtshGoddess
Posts: 446
Joined: 1/1/2006
From: Hollywood Hills, CA
Status: offline
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i saw this a couple of days ago as a powder keg waiting to go up. the only reason i decided to respond was because of an incident that happened to me in traffic today.
myself, i'm multiracial. my mother is cuban (with an irish father).. my father, to my knowledge , is just totally black. during different times of the year my skin changes colours. anyone looking at my CM profile can see the difference. in summer i'm darker, in winter/fall i'm much MUCH lighter and i do see a difference between how i'm treated when i have a tan vs when i have my winter cafe au lait pelt.
that makes me cuban, black, and irish (only like 1/4 irish).. the father of my son is german and italian, i'm black & cuban.. what does that make my caucasian looking son? i've even had women come up to me and ask me "how much i charge?" as if i MUST be the nanny.. or say "wow, i didn't know they still had wet nurses" when they saw me nursing my *white* baby. i took him to an amusement park once and they thought i actually had KIDNAPPED him and wouldn't let us go from security until his father came to *claim* us. it's evident, we have a LOT to learn in this country or perhaps the world regarding race and race relations.
personally i identify as just *black* because it's easier. but i do detest that i have to pick one box or the other. i have taken enough physical anthropology courses to know that there is only Monogoloid, Caucasiod and Negroid races.. but all that aside.
i've honestly been on the OTHER side of the affirmative action thing like twice, at the same time i've also witnessed it being abused by whites as well.
before anyone gets their whips in a bunch, let me explain.
in high school we were all applying for universities. i checked black for each one just because that was my only choice. i knew someone that had a black gramma but looked 100% white- i'm talkng blonde hair/blue eyes the whole 9 yards.
she applied to UCLA yet she identified herself as black. she was accepted. i'm not saying that danica didn't deserve to be there, we were all in AP courses and all had 4.0 and above GPAs. but i found it a little offensive that she didn't consider herself black day to day,.. merely just riding the affirmative action piggy back.
personally, i applied to UC Santa Cruz. when i got the accepting letter in the mail i was like ECSTATIC.. i could literally almost shit!. until i read the rest. to paraphrase it said something like "we're trying to increase our african american community by XYZ percent by whatever year.
i was like damn. did i get in because i had a 4.2 grade point average? or did i get in because i'm black? (when you take advanced placement courses you get a bit extra on your GPA because they're university level courses taken in highschool). our valedictorian graduated with a 5.0.
i wanted to go to UC Santa Cruz more than life itself, but that fucking email left the baddest of bad tastes in my mouth.
so i declined to go. (now i look back and i really wish i would have but at that time my pride wouldn't let me go just because i was black).
i got a letter from UC Santa Barbera (that i didn't want to go to, my mom and brother just pressured me to go there because that's where his MBA was from).. they DENIED me because i was black.
i actually got a fucking letter stating that i was denied BECAUSE i was black and that they had *filled* their *quota* of african american students.
so the sword cuts both ways. affirmative can help you if you're a minority and it can also FUCK you.
the school i ended up choosing was a California State University institution ONLY because they said.. welcome aboard. they didn't mention anything about me being black or this or that or any quotas. and i'm so pleased with the school i chose.
we have a cross dressing professor there (no bullshit, he says if his wife can wear pants then a man can wear a dress).. we have a total leather daddy teacher and the whole campus is just chill. i knew i made the right decision.
i've also been passed up for grants because the *quota* of ethnica researchers has been filled. i've also been told to my face after being equally as qualified as anyone else, that they don't have any *ethnic* scholarships available. like i need an ethnic scholarship to prove myself? like i would need that to get ahead? shouldn't my eloquence and experience in the field i'm in be enough?
at the same time, i will play devil's advocate regarding what King said. yeah, we should be held upon the merits of our own prowess (to paraphrase).. but at the same time, how many studies need to be done showing that qualified people of colour are passed up for jobs that were given to non blacks or non hispanics? i read one (and i could hunt it down if someone wants a reference).. that they took white peopel that claimed they were felons on an application and compared them to the same jobs that black NON felons applied for. out of like 10 job interviews 7 of the 10 whites were hired (complete with felonies).. yet only 3 of the non felon blacks were hired.
if that's not a discrepancy i don't know what the fuck is.
equal is as equal does and let's face it. racism and discrimination still exists. i got called a nigger cunt in traffic today driving home from the market in my affluent neighbourhood. he could have called me a bitch, or an asshole for cutting him off (which i didn't actually do, merely taking my next place in the line of traffic) naah, he chose to call me a nigger. he is the same person that will go and deny a minority employment were he in that position to, or tell racist jokes in the privacy of his own home or with friends.. yet espouse publically his inability to see a disparity.
if a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound? if someone is discriminated against yet no one else sees or hears did it mean it didn't happen?
i just hold onto what my mom told me.
education is the key.
i was lucky enough to be afforded private education and given an opportunity to advance in life without TRULY feeling held back.
but realistically. what i've read on this thread doesn't accurately depict life the way it is as a whole.
YES affirmative action cuts both ways .. personally i've been approved AND denied based on that shit.
but at the end of the day, some people are indeed held back as well.
some things are more ingrained than we'd like to believe.
*edited for typo/clarification*
< Message edited by EbonyFtshGoddess -- 9/23/2006 12:46:53 PM >
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