Affirmative Action, Part II

Before I started teaching at my current public school, I had only a theoretical knowledge of the Affirmative Action. Now, I teach at a university which is located right on the border with Missouri, a former slave state. We have two programs in place that I’m aware of that give an opportunity to students to attend university even if their grades don’t qualify them. The profs are informed which of the students in their classes are part of the program and are asked for regular updates on their progress.

Now that I have seen this program at work, I am a believer.

A significant segment of these students don’t make it, of course. Many, however, do. From the beginning, one can notice easily that they are not prepared for the university. Academically, they are really behind the rest of the students. As a teacher, I have to work very hard to help such students catch up and do well in the course. I am completely ready to make the effort, though. I have seen several such students flourish and get from the bottom of the class to the very top. This requires extra effort from the prof but I, for one, am more than ready to invest extra time and work to help these students to succeed.

In the comments to the first part of this post, readers have suggested that the structure of society needs to be altered in a way that will remove the racist and classist barriers that prevent these kids from doing well from the start. Eventually, this will make Affirmative Action unnecessary. This is a great goal and I support it in full. For now, however, I live in an area where the racial divide is huge and racism is flourishing.

To give just one example, the inhabitants of my town voted down the proposal to extend the Metrolink from St. Louis to our town. Even though this would have made everybody’s lives easier, would help commuters and simplify traveling to and from the city for all of us, the people of my town sacrificed all that because they don’t want to make it easier for the carless people of St. Louis, “the undesirables”, to make it to our town and “spoil” it. Would anybody like to venture a guess as to the race of the undesirables that are being kept out at all cost?

As a result, for now, the only way for black students from the poor and dangerous parts of St. Louis to get to our little suburban paradise is by going to our university. They need to be in class, whether their grades initially qualify them for that or not, because other places where they are likely to end up are not good. We also need them to be in our classes because, otherwise. our school will turn into a place where everybody is the same, looks the same, and has the same experiences to share.