Re: “Where did equality go?” (page 4, Nov. 15)
Another Monday, another outlandish perspective from “The Campus Conservative.” Like all of her arguments, this week’s rant against affirmative action was full of holes, poorly thought out, and at times, completely absurd and offensive. (See: “A more important question, however, is whether racial diversity is valuable at all.”)
To be honest, before I came to Boston University, I had a viewpoint on affirmative action that was similar to Stroll’s. I grew up in a small, rural community that was heavily conservative and 97 percent white. I thought that giving people advantages just because they had a certain ethnic or racial background was discriminatory, and in fact I would still say it is. But anyone who thinks that is an argument against affirmative action doesn’t understand the issue.
Stroll says “Affirmative action gives certain individuals special preferences. Equal opportunity doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.” This is dead wrong. Affirmative action gives individuals special preferences so that they will have equal opportunities. Affirmative action gives women and minorities the opportunity to level the playing field, which, for the vast majority of American history has been incredibly uneven.
Throughout the semester, Stroll has taken some pretty radical viewpoints, something that’s not so hard to do when you don’t have to defend yourself. That’s why I would like to take this opportunity to challenge Stroll to a public debate. If you’re willing to accept this challenge and really stick by your radical views, please contact me and we can set a date.
Megan Jacobs CAS ’06 Vice President Boston University College Democrats
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