Race In Education
Fall of 1999, I applied for the University of
Idaho to pursue a bachelor degree.
I could be the first in my family to
obtain this accomplishment. The issue that
always came to mind was will I
have enough money? Racial issues in the state of
Idaho were a concern of
mine also, for I was a member of a minority group. How
is it possible for an
Asian American, from a low-income family, suppose to fund
their education and
mentally tolerate racism in Idaho? I felt scared and
uncertain of what the
future held for me. I he question, "how does other
minority groups deal and
cope with the issues at hand?" When I graduated high
school in 1994, I was
uncertain of what I wanted to do. I failed to get a
scholarship in athletics
and had no funding to pay for school. So, I thought to
myself "What am I to
do for myself now?" Like most minorities I went to work
for a living and
eventually got married. Things got worse and worse as time went
on. Things
turned for the worst and I got divorced and was working as a
furniture
salesman. I spoke to my parents and told them that I was going to go
to
college at the University of Idaho. My father laughed and said, "yea
right
and pigs fly." Certainly all the odds are stacked up against minorities
in
getting a better education. With all the issues brought up in America
about
equality in the past decade. We find that minorities do have a lot of
lenience
in pursuing an education and pursuing professional jobs,
"equal
opportunity." A big question is "how much lenience do we give and who
do we
give it to?" In a recent article that I read in the Idaho
Statesman,
"Diversity: Idaho and the U.S." was pretty interesting, but
yet still a
harsh reality to minorities. It stated that less than 10 percent
of Idaho’s
population was minority. Idaho is the rated 42 out of 50 states in
the lowest
percent of minority residents. With numbers so low, does this
impact the
lenience of minorities received in colleges and big corporations?
Does company
like Micron and Hewlett-Packard in Boise have recruiting
problems in hiring
minorities due to affirmative action? Section 601 of the
Civil Rights Act of
1964 provides: No person in the United States shall,
on the ground of race,
color, or national origin, be excluded from
participation in, be denied the
benefits of, or be subjected to
discrimination under any program or activity
receiving Federal financial
assistance. (American Constitutional Law) With these
recruiting problems does
this affect the quality of the work? In a interview in
The Idaho
Statesman, Mehairi stated, "Nothing makes me want to go there,"
said Mehairi
Kassa, a Drexel University student interviewing at a California job
fair
where HP (Hewlett Packard) was recruiting." If corporations can’t to
hire on
the bases of where they can’t base their decision on race, religion,
sex, and
affiliation of any specific group. Then why do we use these things for
basing
funding for education? With all these questions at hand, I was curious
and I
started to look into these fascinating things. Among these things I found
in
Idaho there are four different racist groups residing in Bonners Ferry,
Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Nampa, and Sandpoint and others in North Idaho.
(Idaho
Statesman) "North Idaho College couldn’t persuade any person of
color to
apply for its president’s job. Several black female candidates were
contacted
but declined when they learned the college was in Coeur d’Alene,"
stated Ron
Bell Interim President. (Idaho Statesman) This gave me a
little insight in how
people had perceived the state of Idaho. I think it is
perceived this way
because of how Idaho is portrayed in the media. With the
whole OJ Simpson case
and how Mark Fermin lived in Sandpoint. It gives a
preconceived idea to
minorities considering moving to Idaho. After seeing
this insight, I wasn’t
going to let it deter me from pursuing an education. I
continued to look for all
the possible ways to finance my education. I filled
out a Financial Aide form
and pursued several scholarships. After all this, I
received enough funding to
attend the University of Idaho. Is this because
I’m a minority or because I
come from a low-income family? I feel that I
received this due to the image of
how minorities see Idaho’s image and that I
should reflect how Idaho really
looks. Looking at the other side of coin,
being white Caucasian, is this really
fair that minorities receive more
funding because they were born into a minority
family? In this, does the fact
that they get special treatment spark anger among
the white community? In
light of this, I went next door and interviewed two
white females that are
attending the university. Both took the side that"minorities shouldn’t get more
funding than Caucasians, because we are all
human and funding should be based
on need not race." How are whites treated in
other countries? Are they given
the same opportunities as minorities here in
America? One of the
interviewees even brought up athletes getting more funding
upset them as
well. Which opens a whole new
realm.