I remember the day I went to college. I came from a small town with absolutely no preference. We all went to the same school, the same mall, the same Pizza Hut, the same everything. There wasn’t enough resources to have a white side of town and a black side of town. The town was only 45 blocks long and about ten miles wide. Some folks called it a two horse town. I walked to school one Saturday morning and took my act test along with all of my other peers. I was happy with my score. When I got to college with my score and my scholarships, I was herded into a group of people and told that I did not have to have a good ACT score because I was black. The assumptions were so telling. Without even asking, I was told that I was from the urban jungle and that I had to come from a home that had no money and that my race did not score well on standardized test and so on and so on……. I even had that attitude from some of my professors. Even the skills that I was not good at were contributed to the fact that I was black and not the fact that it just was not my skill. This all changed for me when I met a teacher by the name of Dr. Suggs. He taught black music and many African Americans took the class. Some of us thought that it was a blow off class. That was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken and I am so glad that he was a wakeup call for us and the University. For those who expected preference, he gave them a much needed comeuppance. For those who thought we were only as good as an eleven on the ACT, he gave them a comeuppance too. Affirmative action opened the door, but it also gave the impression that there was no way that I can open it myself. It allowed me to come in as a supposed inferior and not that I had not worked my tailbone off to be there. All I needed was for there not to be an impediment to me opening the door and we would know if I could open the door for myself. Unfortunately, I worked in the office where the preference was abounding and I saw students who were allowed to come and add a little color to the campus who weren’t ready for it. Sometimes, I cried when I saw how they struggled and I prayed that they could recoup the skills they had not come to college with. Instead of opening the door, why not make the school right around the corner of their homes better. Give them the tools and not just open the door. When I look at the works of the Cross. Jesus did not just forgive our sins, he sent the Holy Spirit so that we could become better people. He made it so that we did not have to run to the altar every month trying to atone for sin. He put his laws in us and gave us a better hope established on better promises. His blood took away the sin and his spirit gave us the righteousness inside to stay that way. Now, that is affirmative action. It causes change that goes well beyond stepping your foot in the door only to have to walk back out because you are not prepared to come in the door.
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