I am writing in response to Mr. Sirising’s article on affirmative action.

Mr. Sirising, I honestly considered your stance on affirmative action; however, I do believe that you are either now or have been living in a cloud for the last 21 years. Yes, President Johnson put affirmative action in place to right the past wrongs placed on minorities in this country, but to take that away now would be unjust. Do you really think that if we were to take away affirmative action that everyone in this country would get the fair chance they deserve? I high doubt that.

Since you like to use scenarios so much, consider this one. How would you feel if you went on a job interview and had all the requirements to get the job but was turned down because of the color of your skin? Do you think it could happen in today’s society? Of course it could. It seems to me that you are only looking at this situation from one side and totally disregarding the other. Have you ever had a family member try to get a job that you know they deserved, but didn’t because they are a minority. If it had not been for affirmative action my father and mother probably wouldn’t have got the opportunities that they received. Furthermore, because they received those opportunities, it has allowed me to be enrolled in a university today to help the generations after me achieve much more than I will.

I am sorry, I don’t know what rock you have been hiding under for the last 21 years but you need to come from under it and look at the real world. As for your brother getting a minority scholarship, that is truly great. If affirmative action wasn’t in place, would your brother have gotten his scholarship and went to TSU? Who’s to say? The point is that he is there and the more and more we get races to mix, the more we can get this country to become the “Melting Pot” that is was supposed to be in the first place.

I, too, stand by the quote from Dr. King. Everyone should be judge by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin and I look forward to when that day truly comes. However, that day is not today, and until that day comes we need laws like affirmative action to even things out the way they are suppose to be.

Now, I am not saying that minorities who don’t qualify for positions should get those positions just because they are minority. I am saying that if a company or university is looking at their applicant on merit alone then there shouldn’t be any need to use the law because not all minorities are ignorant. Some of them can be just as qualified as the non-minority applicants. However, if the university or company is looking at the color of skin alone and rejecting more minorities than they accept, affirmative action is put in place to make sure that minorities have a fair hand in each situation. I urge you to reconsider your position on this issue.

Antonio Davis is a senior Finance major from Memphis.