April 8, 1999
Since I was absent last week, I would like to talk about diversity and Proposition 3. I think that if we have diversity, we will be able to learn more about different cultures and be a more complete community. If diversity weren’t represented on campus, then we would be silencing the opinions that other races might have on different issues. A strong community is one that represents different cultures and races and accepts them all.
For the reasons stated above, I feel that Prop 3 is a great idea to increase the diversity on the campus. With the elimination of affirmative action on UC campuses, many of the minorities are scared away from applying to the UC schools. They feel as if they won’t get in and they don’t even put in the effort of applying. If there were such a program that helps retain their goals of going to college, such as the Retention Center that Prop 3 will help fund for, I feel that a lot would be more encouraged to apply, therefore increasing diversity on the campus. If there is a more diverse community on the campus, I strongly feel that there will be a more diverse community in the country as well in the future. Also, by learning about diversity and the cultures during college, we won’t have many biases that them that might form hatred later on.
Some people might argue that affirmative action will not admit people that are competent, but in the majority race. They feel that instead, they will take the minority who is less competent. I don’t feel that this is the case. I feel that by giving the people of different ethnicity the chance to prove what they are made of, they will succeed in a competitive society. They can also teach us the values and understanding that make up their own ethnicity. I always am intrigued most by those people with different backgrounds because it is so different from the typical American background. They have survived through their own history and they are now in a place where they can use that knowledge to teach other people. I think that in order for America to be successful in the future, they should start accepting the views and opinions of all cultures and learning from it to gain the global perspective on everything. If we didn’t have diversity, we would be really close-minded and we wouldn’t progress as much. America is full of diversity and if we don’t take advantage of that fact, then we will be the losers of the next century.