“the best way to put an end to discrimination is by ending discrimination” –me

I appear to be a white male.  In truth, if I played the game, I qualify under some government program as a minority.  But that is discrimination.  Our government has laws against discrimination, and it is illegal to discriminate against anyone, unless you are a white male.  But I will not play their games.

Because I have been a witness to, discrimination by private individuals against Chinese, Africans, Intuit, Women, I know that such discrimination exists.  But I have seen individual discrimination go in favor of ethnic groups, too.  Mostly, discrimination is bad and wrong.  What is definitely always wrong is institutionalized discrimination, of the sort that is written into our laws and legal decisions.

I have taken this all my life, and it is an annoyance, but it hits you much harder when you see your children discriminated against.

When I took the ACT college entrance exam, it was totally objective.  I know that there are people who claim that the experience of some undefined underclass give them a disadvantage, but I was pretty close to that underclass, and I excelled, and I believe that multiple choice is as objective as it gets in this world.

When I read that a subjective section–an essay–had been added, I had my doubts.  But like Charlie Brown, I always trust that liberal Lucy is going to hold the football for me, and not pull it away at the last minute.  She always lets me down, but I always trust her.

I signed up my son to take the test with the essay.

He did fantastic.  90+ percentiles across the board, even higher in his favorite subjects.  Really great.  Oh, except for that essay.  How did he do on the essay?  a D.

Now realize that this is a kid who always gets very high scores.  I am used to seeing him bring standardized tests with 99 percentiles, and I have never seen one below 90. ever.  I asked him about his essay the day he wrote it, and he told me he had written it on a subject he understood well, it was a question about government control of resources, in an area he had a school project he had just completed, this worried me.

I am a Republican.  But I do not ask my children to be Republicans, I ask them to be who they are, to argue their opinions with passion, but without anger.  Most of my sons slacker friends are born to be life-long Democrats, and we tease them, but the conversation is good natured.  My son is a Republican, and true to himself, he wrote of the dangers of government control.  I can assure you that his essay would be far better than most of what I write in this blog, but it got a D.

I had to write it here, because as a father, it bothers me more to feel that I have not done enough to keep discrimination out of our government and schools.  It has to stop.  No more Charlie Brown.