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I Used to Support Affirmative Action. I No Longer Do.
For the longest time, I believed that genuine concern for social progress was inseparable from unwavering support for affirmative action, much like how one needs to balance both sticks to hold a pair of chopsticks.
However, this perspective gradually eroded within me in recent years.
Perhaps it was the constant chafing with my parents on politics. Their ideological commitments have made me acutely aware of the tendency to prioritize emotions over substantiating ideas with evidence.
Perhaps, it was becoming a parent myself. Through seeing the aptitudes and potential in my own child, I’ve come to disavow social tendencies that seek to label individuals based on immutable physical traits, rather than recognizing and appreciating the complexity of one’s humanity.
Perhaps, the accumulation of life interactions has shown me that we each have our own set of hidden histories that involve fortunes amid sorrows, tragedies, and challenges — all ultimately leading to our own personal achievements.
However, the current tendency to influence policies and interactions based on binary notions of privilege and oppression over-simplifies the inherent complexity of these individual…
