Reverse racism is backward too

No one really wants equality, and this university is caustic with hate. In the virulent clamor for parity we divide ourselves into a multitude of factions, which further prevents us from achieving an equal society.

My everlasting opinion is that bigotry is morally wrong, with the exception of bigotry against bigots. Yet I attend the UW, where I endure the ubiquity of affirmative action. I have grappled with this issue of positive discrimination in favor of minorities, but I am convinced it is a bad idea, because it imbues hate in whomever it touches.

I was recently at a meeting to discuss Initiative 773. Someone ventured that it might adversely affect minorities. I opined that the initiative would actually help them by improving their health, to which I was immediately asked, point blank, who I was to try and help out minorities.

There it was. I am white, and hated for it. I foolishly bleated this observation, but forthwith dropped the subject. I forced myself to accept the basic idea behind the hatred: White males still rule this country. I know that. I do not like it.

But neither do I like being hated because of my skin color. Who does? I have never committed this ignominy against anyone, but that decency counts for nothing. By virtue of my color I am labeled a hypocrite to speak against prejudice at all. Angered, but not embittered, I will obtain the power I need to solve my problem. In that spirit, I am going to end discrimination wherever it is within my ability to so do, from this time on. I humbly recommend this strategy to anyone. Gaining power is more effectual than complaining.

Do not mistake my anti-affirmative action stance as conservative: I am more liberal than most. But I also cannot go to the journalist retreat for the disadvantaged, or win a scholarship that rewards skin color. I am dirt poor, with not enough money to attend this college full-time, and I say good day to whomever wishes to give me the shaft because I don't look right.

I cannot conscionably rant solely about reverse discrimination. The original discrimination is just as ugly, and it is painful. This society owes everyone as equal an opportunity as possible to succeed in life. So long as there are disparities in this basic requirement, we cannot pretend that racism is cured, or activism obsolete. But instead of tipping the scales in the other direction, we should demand that whatever the white male is entitled to, so is everyone - and direct our activism at seeing this policy enforced.

In a long time, this will balance things out. Meanwhile, though, anyone who is disadvantaged will simply have to work harder. It has always been that way, because people are not created equal, nor is society perfectly just. Some have to work harder to cover the same ground.

Similarly, some choose of their own free will to work diligently so that they will better themselves relative to others. I have always worked hard, because I have ambitious plans. By the work I have done and the luck that has come my way, I have become a better persona than many. Yet I do not pursue equality, gravitating toward the cultural average. Sensibly, I work to better myself further.

This is why I said no one really wants equality. Beyond equality of opportunity, further equality will result in one homogenous mass of people. Diversity will be lost, and individual ambition will be replaced with tired nonchalance.

I implore anyone with a scrap of power at this university to nullify any policies of discrimination within their domain. Not one soul at the UW is so feeble as to be unable to fend for his or herself in a fair game. Let's play fair.