Brandon W Hogan,
Jonesboro, AR
I am a 35-year-old black man living in what is supposedly a very racist, bigoted Southern United States state or Arkansas. Other than a handful of incidents in high school of people just trying to anger me, I have never been the victim of any kind of “racial incident” or had any confrontation that was, as far as I know, based on race other than having a few young black men tell me I am not black enough because I tell them not to call me, “nigga.” It’s worth saying that I have never once had to say anything similar to anyone of another fact-it has never happened in my adult life.
I strongly believe that Affirmative Action policies are not only inherently unfair and unethical but serve to actually lessen the accomplishments of any non-white person, whether that person benefited from such policies or not. I am a U.S. Army Medical Corps Veteran and have a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and a Master’s Degree in History. I should not have to explain that I have achieved what I have(relatively meager as it may be) without handouts or hand-ups and that I actively refuse and denounce such programs as insulting and ultimately damaging to everyone.