Affirmative Action: A Muddled Fight

            It’s difficult being yellow in a black and white society.  As Michael Omi and Dana Takagi point out in their essay “Situating Asian Americans in the Political Discourse of Affirmative Action”, we Asian Americans are suspended in a limbo between black and white—a sort of gray area, so to speak.  This awful grayness is painfully obvious in the affirmative action debate, where Asian Americans have taken the spotlight.  With anti-affirmative action people idolizing our image as a victimized yet hardworking and high achieving people and the pro-affirmative action people conveniently ignoring us, I can’t help but be a little annoyed at being a pawn in the political arena.  Despite both sides claim that they are looking out for our interests, I’m not fooled: our experiences as Asian Americans have been translated into political capital, just like many groups before us.  Somehow, every group is trying to look out for Asian American’s best interests, where historically, Asian Americans have been ignored in the broad political landscape.  These groups (here, the pro-affirmative action and anti-affirmative action viewpoints), suddenly see themselves as the mouthpiece for the Asian American community.  The battle of affirmative action has become so muddled, I no longer have an opinion; it was lost in the fray.  One thing I do know: things can’t remain the same.  The discrepancies in admission rates need to be equalized, yet what is the fairest way to do so?  Perhaps Omi and Takagi’s suggestion might work: only take into account the socioeconomic class of the incoming students.  Only time can tell if it will ever work.

-Melody Yee

Section 2