Martin Luther King Jr. would be disappointed. Despite the many improvements regarding segregation and civil rights after his death, there is still much work to be done.

King would be dismayed at today’s source of racism. Although he reached out to minorities during his time, it seems his message has been lost among them.

During his “I Have a Dream” speech, King said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

This couldn’t be further from what is occurring today. College students around the nation are judged based on their skin color, which sometimes determines whether they are accepted into a certain program or not.

In an unprecedented move by yours truly, I applaud George W. Bush for speaking out against the University of Michigan and its admissions process, though his bold move all but guarantees he will lose his already small base of minority voters.

Michigan admissions have a scale of 0 to 150. Minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, or American Indians score 20 points, while those with perfect SAT results receive only 12 points. This is ridiculous. Any system giving race higher priority than a perfect SAT score is tragically flawed.

Why do minorities feel they need a handout? We don’t want to be treated differently from anyone else, yet we don’t feel like there is a problem with affirmative action? If Michigan gave extra points for being white, Jesse Jackson would be protesting and denouncing the school in a heartbeat.

The problem with civil rights leaders, such as Jackson, is that they’ve lost the message King tried to spread. King and other leaders from his era wanted to end racism by making it a non-issue. Unfortunately, many people (the majority being Democrats) are making race a bigger issue than ever. They support affirmative action because they feel badly for minorities. They can clear their consciences by supporting affirmative action.

Slavery was obviously a travesty, and I feel terrible for all the wrongs committed during that period in our history. However, what’s done is done, and we can’t continue to be held down by past events. We’re not going to end racism if we continue giving minorities special advantages. Granting minorities affirmative action is just as racist as denying a black person entry into a country club.

We can’t continue to operate under the pretense that every black person is underprivileged. This is far from the truth, which gives colleges reason to grant students some partiality, if any, based on merits. Anyone will tell you grades and test scores are not the only factors that matter. Personal experiences in life will contribute to a person’s personality and their general attitude.

I have no problem with Michigan giving extra points to a minority student coming from a poor inner-city school. If that student is competitive with other national students, he deserves extra points because he came from a disadvantaged background. If he happens to be black, it’s not a big deal. However, there is a problem if a student is automatically given points just because of his or her race.

When first introduced, the notion of affirmative action was a good idea, but the world has changed since then. Being a minority isn’t as tough since we’ve infiltrated high-position jobs. Also, getting accepted into college has become easier with the aid of federal loans and scholarships. If minorities want to keep advancing, they must refute the preconceived notion that all minorities start from behind. We can’t expect people to stop discriminating against us if we continue taking advantage of a flawed system.

Vijay Ramanavarapu is a sophomore in business. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].