After spending the last few hours applying for internships, I am pretty annoyed with the overemphasis of peoples race in academic settings. Every one of the internships has clauses at the bottom of them stating that special considerations will be made for those from ethnic or racial minorities. Shouldn't socioeconomic status have a much larger effect on these considerations than ones race? I have white friends that had to work MUCH harder than many of my black friends growing up due to their poverty. While the black kids were handed everything they could ever want by their parents, the white kids grew up knowing that they would never afford college unless they worked their asses off to get it paid for. They could never afford tutors, weren't taught the meaning of hard work by their parents, and grew up in a household of underachievement. Shouldn't these kids with rougher upbringings be the ones getting into the better schools and getting the better jobs, all else being equal? By making these special considerations, aren't we really just continuing racial prejudice by saying that no matter what your upbringing, you're going to have a harder time growing up if you are black than if you are white? Aren't we putting immediately placing minorities in a lower light by doing this?
On a related note, I am the only white, male, straight person at my work of about 50 people. How does this make sense? I refuse to believe that it is because the other white, straight, male applicants are less qualified, and while diversity is obviously an important part of a workplace, aren't you really decreasing diversity when there are probably 10 gay guys, and a ton of girls (which I'm not really complaining about mind you). If you have the same exact upbringing as someone else, are treated the exact same in school, and apply to the same position, why is it that they are more deserving of the spot than you are?
Sorry for the rant I was just interested to see what you're opinions are on the matter
