Discrimination isn’t going away

Thank you very much for your speedy response, I must admit I am impressed with you Mr. Hemming, as well as the friend you brought along. I didn’t think you gentlemen had it in you to actually respond. After checking my e-mail, phone messages and anticipating it were you at the door every time someone knocked for a week I had begun to lose hope in YCT. But I should have known better, you still have some fight left in you so lets vanquish it shall we?

First, if it is true that you also “feel that an open dialogue is a key to getting the problem of ‘Special Interest’ seats solved at our fine university,” then I really don’t understand why you haven’t approached me for such a dialogue.

I’m sure you have been busy with all of the research required to express your opinion in your eloquently written article, and unlike me (since I don’t really do much work because I rely on the color of my skin to get me by in life) you must be swamped with tests, assigned readings and papers to write.

I still think that with the time that you took to look at all the universities you mention in your article you could have taken a few minutes to give me a call, write me a quick e-mail or just drop by for a cup of tea. I believe that you are aware of my contact information, since it was part of my invitation in my last article so feel free to contact me at anytime.

Moving on. I would assume that your three friends who were present at the CHAS meeting would agree with you on what you say were my quotes. As I said in my last article, I understand where you saw my point on “an enemy of change” which I stand by, yet could you please refresh my memory as to the time I called your organization “racist?”

Now, you keep on bringing up how the policies that I support are actually racist so I ask you, are you labeling me as racist?

As to the issue of the amendment, I actually supported it because I feel that it makes the Senate a more democratic governing body. I also support the fact that it was rejected because it was done so in a democratic manner. The campus community has spoken and you should learn to accept it when you lose at something that you were very passionate about.

As to the many questions you pose to the administration, maybe it would be wise of you to address them personally. I cannot answer for the administration and give you the reasons they decide to take the actions they do. I do not believe that “the administration is basically calling minorities under-qualified” because I have experienced the lack of resources that are available in largely minority populated areas.

In my humble opinion, I would say that the administration notices these problems that occur in our society and that’s why they take the measures they do.

I would like to invite, nay, challenge you Mr. Hemming as well as any other friends you would like to bring along to venture into these areas and take a look at the way that minority kids are being educated. Please take time out of your busy schedule to visit the elementary schools in Oak Cliff and others in the DISD. I believe that you would be surprised to see how awful the conditions are for these children and how small of a percentage of them will look like you — unlike our campus.

As I stated in my last article, past discrimination against minorities has had an effect on the current minority populations. Now we must deal with the problems that have arisen such as lack of resources, poverty, extreme violence and many other issues.

I haven’t seen much anger or frustration on your part towards the type of affirmative action that got Bush into Yale. There was nothing spectacular about him as a student, yet he had the family connections that were able to get him into such a prestigious school. Legacies formulate another sphere of affirmative action that helps white, upper-class individuals get a better education than poor, underprivileged minorities.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Harvard accepts 40 percent of applicants who are alumni’s children yet only 11 percent of the total applicants.

I ask you members of the YCT how does this meet the principles of “‘equality’, ‘liberty’ and the idea that ‘all men are created equal?’”

Finally, I would ask that you take me up on my invitation from last time instead of continuing a newspaper feud, although I fear that you don’t have the “equipment” necessary to do so.