THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508180597
SECTION: FINAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Pamela Brown defended the merits of affirmative action which allowed her to attend the University of Virginia under a full minority scholarship (Another View,). I too was a National Achievement Scholar upon graduating from Maury High School, and like her I was accepted at UVA but could not afford the tuition. Unfortunately, whereas we are alike in our scholastic achievements, that is where the similarities end, because I was born white and there were no minority scholarships available for me. Therefore, I had to work my way through Old Dominion in order to graduate 5-1/2 years later. Affirmative action certainly did not ``welcome'' me.
Ms. Brown states in her letter that her ``parents' generation fought hard for their basic rights as citizens,'' and I assume this is the rationalization she uses for denying me the same basic opportunities she now enjoys. It is the only way she can justify her statement that affirmative action ``provides a chance to compete, and to win or lose on individual merit.'' What a contradiction! She received a full minority scholarship because of her color; her individual merit would have been meaningless if she were white.
Her last statement is the most revealing. She worries about ``when the government becomes color blind to inequality in this country, I'm afraid that it will become blind to me.'' The only inequality she is experiencing is race based preferential treatment in her favor. Unlike Ms. Brown I long for the time that I will not be held accountable for the color of my skin or the sins of past generations but only for the content of my character and my individual merits.
BRIAN V. CAMDEN
Virginia Beach, Aug. 10, 1995 by CNB