Letter to the Editor: Affirmative action’s goals are not wrong
Editor,
It is troubling that Rylish Moeller, a learned member of our own institution will, in the name of diversity, squelch the speech rights of a group with whom he does not agree.
Labeling viewpoints that do not match your own as propaganda follows a dangerous precedent. The Statesman does not exist solely to promote your agenda. For all of your rhetoric about diversity and sensitivity, you do no justice to those ideals by applying labels to opposing viewpoints.
Your assertion about the athletic department further demonstrates how unfamiliar you are with the “problem” on campus. Visit the fourth floor of Old Main or one of the engineering buildings sometime.
The next time you decide to run your mouth about the “diversity problem” in Cache Valley, do us a favor and actually explain just what the problem is. And tell us how many people from each team it will take to make you happy. The racial composition of Cache Valley is neither good nor bad. It just is. Don’t apply your emotionally charged labels to a quantity that is not the result of an official policy of discrimination.
Think about why Cache Valley’s present settlements were populated in the first place. Many locals have mobs and institutional injustice in their histories. Many students who are part of your “problem” have themselves lived where they have been the sole member of their ethnicity. They understand diversity to a higher degree than you know.
Further, you never explain why we shouldn’t question affirmative action. Should citizens not question a government program? Can’t you see the irony in fighting discrimination by giving privileges based solely on skin color? You are telling us that discrimination is not wrong, it is only sometimes bad.
The goals of AA are not wrong; its means of achieving them are. The fact that this question can even be raised proves AA is as divisive as Jim Crow.
Because it suffers from such fundamental flaws, AA will never succeed. And please give students more credit by not forwarding the idea that they blindly do whatever the College Republicans bid.
Erik Falor