Am I pink, black, red or white…should it matter?
“It’s not what you know, but who you know.” This is a widely known expression used to express how one becomes successful. However, in this day and age when it comes to applying for colleges, scholarships, financial aid, and sometimes even jobs that saying should ring more like this: It’s not what you know, but where you come from. The distribution of money many times is based a lot from how successful your parents are, if you are male or female, and (dare I say it) the color of your skin.
This archived article was written by: Shala Jo Osborne
“It’s not what you know, but who you know.” This is a widely known expression used to express how one becomes successful. However, in this day and age when it comes to applying for colleges, scholarships, financial aid, and sometimes even jobs that saying should ring more like this: It’s not what you know, but where you come from. The distribution of money many times is based a lot from how successful your parents are, if you are male or female, and (dare I say it) the color of your skin.
The Declaration of Independence declares that “all men are created equal”. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I had a dream” speech relaying how important equal rights are and how every man woman and child deserves equality. Since 1865 and the thirteenth amendment abolished slavery America has slowly fought to achieve equal rights. I believe they have still fallen short of this.
Elie Wiesel stated that, “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”. This statement should be used towards the human equity. Minorities should not be given more rights and more opportunities, instead rights should be indifferent towards all and every ethnic group should be given an equal opportunity.
During the month of February The United States celebrates Black History month. September is celebrated as Hispanic History month. Though I do believe that this subject is extremely important and important to the history of American heritage, why is there no history month dedicated to any Caucasian people. A lot of western culture was developed because of European immigrants, yet because they are considered one large group (instead of breaking them down into Scottish, Irish, Italian, etc.) of Caucasian people they are not granted this same honor. Saying this I feel like I am being racist, but what is racist about wanting to celebrate my European heritage?
I was born in Price, Utah in 1988. I am Caucasian (not that that should really matter) and I am forced to put my ethnicity in order to qualify for certain schools and financial aid. Because of the color of my skin I do not qualify for certain help or certain scholarships. When I was 16 I auditioned for American Idol. At the audition, one of the producers stood in front of the huge crowd and stated that for many of us it didn’t matter how good we were, but it did matter what we looked like. He stated that if they already had to many Caucasian’s, Latino-American’s, or African-American’s they would not let you pass through the audition process. Why does everything have to pertain to race?
I strongly believe that we should all be rewarded by our own merits. In all applications, the ethnic background section should be stricken, making it impossible to give unequal opportunity based on race. If you want to get an education and you work hard for it, you should be rewarded for your efforts. It’s time for absolute equality and that will start when everything becomes indifferent towards the color of ones skin.
