Karen Narasaki
Affirmative action is still necessary because we still don't have equal opportunity in this country. Unfortunately, our schools do not have equal resources and many children, particularly these impoverished inner cities, dont have the same access to quality advanced placement programs, to extracurricular activities, to the many resources that other students have that they need to get when they want to apply for college.
I, myself, am an affirmative action baby. I was admitted to Yale under an affirmative action program, which provided me with the opportunity to show my talent and to prove myself. And that's what affirmative action is all about. It's not a handout, it's an opportunity.
When I was applying to college over 25 years ago, there weren't very minorities in the Ivy League schools. I attended a blue collar high school where less than ýý of the students went on to any kind of education including vocational college. But I was given the opportunity to show what I could do to prove the leadership that I knew that I had.
Yale gave me an enormous opportunity to learn from people from all over the country and all over the world. I think my life would have been very different because it was in college where I was given the opportunity to see, both how people are the same in terms of their shared aspirations and dreams and challenges, but also how they're different because of the cultures that they bring and how each of these different backgrounds has a certain strength. And that when you bring that together, it can be a very beautiful thing.
I think the debate over affirmative action is an important one because we as a nation have become increasingly diverse and it's absolutely critical that all of us learn how to work with people who have different backgrounds from ourselves, who learn how to live in neighborhoods with people of different religions, of different races, of different experiences. And that's what's made America the great country that it is today and thats what's going to keep us a great country tomorrow.
I'm Karen Narasaki. I'm Executive Directory of National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.
