Discrimination

I have to admit, I can be a bit contentious about discrimination. Especially when someone infers that we are obligated to compensate for past discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion or sexual preference. You see, I've experienced blatant discrimination. Reverse discrimination is still discrimination. Politically correct discrimination, but still trying to compensate for a bad bias with a bad bias. The examples that stand out the most in my memories are from my college days. During the heydays of affirmative action. I'm a Caucasian male and although my heritage is diverse and multicultural, I was lumped into the so-called "white majority". So like it or not I learned all about discrimination in college. How it was recognized that historically some groups had suffered because of discrimination and so the general solution was, reality be damned, to discriminate against me and those like me.

There was Cathy ... we both worked at the same company part time in the evenings as security guards while going to the same college during the day. We both lived with our parents while commuting each day to the college. We both had respectable homeowner middle-class parents. She was US born of Mexican heritage. At the job, we made the same wage, although she sought and got the less demanding and safer work, in part because she was a woman. This is understandable since when working in security being more intimidating can provide an advantage. On the job and at college she had big advantages. She was a "minority female". She was a pre-med music major. Early on I asked the obvious question about how music and medicine were related. She told me that by being a minority female, all she needed was good grades in her 4 year degree and she was guaranteed a free ride through medical school. She was a very good violinist, which seemed the best way to get high grades. She talked about how there were financial aid groups and hospitals begging for students like her. With the affirmative action and quota tracking at the time, I didn't doubt her one bit. But it was clear that this wasn't a case of disadvantage or greater need. She enjoyed an advantage simply because of her race. What became clear too, was her sense of entitlement. Since Mexicans had historically been predominately employed as laborers, it made sense to her that she deserved an easier path to the top even if she wasn't qualified. As a side note, she later changed her mind and chose a different career path.

Then there was Olga. Olga was a member of a group of us at work who would go on breaks and lunches together. Olga lived with her mom in a nearby subsidized townhouse. Olga and her mom were considered Hispanic which qualified her as a minority. But Olga detested "those lying, thieving Mexicans" and was always willing to back the statement with examples. Olga's heritage was Castillo Spanish. The interesting part were all the things she and her mom had to do to continue to qualify for the subsidized housing, which being Hispanic helped qualify her for but didn't guarantee. Her Mom took seasonal jobs and always made just enough each year to be under the income limit needed to qualify for the subsidy. Any other income had to be cash and unreported. Olga paid a share of the rent to her Mom, but couldn't declare it (couldn't claim the renters credit on her taxes) or her Mom would have to count it as income. I'm not even sure Olga was listed as living there. I got to hear stories about how, when the social workers scheduled to visit, Olga and mom would cover the furniture with sheets and move the expensive electronics out of the living room into a room the social worker wouldn't see. Such the hassle... Plus, I got to hear about the even more outrageous acts of the neighbors, predominately those lying cheating Mexicans (her words, not mine)... I learned how programs meant to overcome discrimination can easily turn into institutions of welfare abuse and entitlement while motivating exaggerated claims to qualify for benefits ... which promoted a culture of hidden income and deceptions.

There was Kavita. I met her in a class and soon we were studying and spending time together on campus. We got along great. She lived with her parents and commuted to the college as well. Her parents were wealthy immigrants from India. Culturally, Kavita was very American. I asked her out on a date and she rather sheepishly turned me down. Her parents would never approve. Her parents were strict about dating and she could only date Indian guys. It wasn't the first time my race was a barrier in dating. Ironically enough, we stayed in touch over the years as casual friends and shortly after college she met and married a guy at her work who could easily be mistaken as my brother... While I have had no problem with dating women from differing heritages, this was not the first or last time I ran into being so openly discriminated against because of my race.

I remember the jockeying between groups in college for meeting rooms in the student union and for the study rooms around campus. The student union had a policy of scheduling meeting rooms and assigning study rooms by group size. The bigger groups got the bigger rooms, which made sense. But there was also a policy of equal access (special consideration) for minority and special interest groups. So we had groups arguing that they were the biggest minority, while arguing that they should be given priority over other groups such as the groups based on professions or societies, because, of course, those groups were non-minority. This led to arguments by groups that they were "multi-minority" and other debates of fairness, unfairness and what counted as minority... Many of the best study rooms around campus were taken over by minority groups. My favorite study area went from being a great place to meet others in my discipline for quiet study to becoming the noisy social center for some Asian minority group. Ironically enough, there was a Women's Professionals group that was trying to hang onto one of the smaller study room which they had used for years that started asking men to join. So I joined this Women's group as one of a handful of guys helping to keep their membership up (I was counted towards a "minority" that I wasn't) and actually helped them out with fundraisers and such. This led to the interesting quirk that when companies came through on recruiting drives and were wooing the various women's groups (got to fill those quota's) I was on the list.

And the lessons go on.

Not to say that there isn't a need to confront discrimination. There is the need. But so often the reaction doesn't address the action, making it ineffective at best ... and as you can probably tell from my depiction, creates resentment.

It is in human nature to seek advantage. Since claims of discrimination can provide an advantage and are hard to argue against without seeming like you are defending prejudice, they get used ... too often. Often the people most sensitive to discrimination turn out to be the most prejudiced ... we need to look at actions not words.

So I learned as a single white male in college that; reality be damned, it was inferred that the solution to discrimination was to discriminate against me.