SIR: While I believe that his argument on affirmative action was flawed to begin with, Adam Giansiracusa ’08 immediately lost all credibility when he made the statement “there is something very wrong with race in America.” In addition to being an overly simplistic and moronic statement, he failed to analyze why this problem exists and, subsequently, does not realize why affirmative action is a counter-productive policy. Race is not an inherent problem; it is one that we create for ourselves. As soon as politically correct culture told us we had to start calling ourselves “African-Americans” or “Native Americans” (which are admittedly better than the terms we used before), we immediately created a rift between each other. By doing this, we are overcomplicating the issue of Americanism. Racism is caused by the perceived differences in culture. The politically correct culture has lost sight of the fact that we, as Americans, are indeed all the same, regardless of background. This is why affirmative action is a bad policy; it only highlights these truly insignificant differences, and does nothing to help change the distorted view of the ignorant. In its well-intentioned journey to rid the country of bigotry, the academic community must implement policies that erase these differences rather than magnify them. In addition, affirmative action does not account for the good students within the poor white community. While the tales you hear of young black students from the projects who become successful are great, the story of a poor white kid from a coal town in West Virginia who attends an Ivy League college can be equally as inspiring. Mr. Giansiracusa states athat an economic-oriented affirmative action policy would not turn enough attention to race, which, he believes, would eliminate different races in the political spectrum. In response to this, we must ask why exactly is having a senator like Barack Obama so important? Does the best man for the job deserve to win, or does the best minority candidate deserve to win (this question in no way states that because you are a minority you are not fit to govern)? His rise to power is certainly a glorious anecdote, but isn’t the “black pride” that stems from such a leader counter-productive to the cause of racial equality? Does it not highlight a false difference between races? Sincerely, Peter Schock ’08
