i am trying really hard to understand why prejudice exists in the way and to the degree that it does in our culture and why we fail to understand it as a society. an individual that i know approached me the other day, asking for some advice and as i listened to his story, i understood every word that he said and i realized that we had something in common: cultural oppression. it didn’t matter why he was oppressed by the sentiments were the same, the emotions as painful and as deep and the denial greater. see, one of the ways in which we are often kept down is by others trying to minimize the importance of our differences… let me explain.

i finally came to terms with affirmative action. it is not to make up for past wrongdoings or things like that. instead, it is a recognition that, by being the underhanded in a situation, you are going to have to constantly deal with that before any work can be completed, meaning that quite often, your performance suffers. in addition, the tests for performance are based on the strengths and information of the majority, which is not you. affirmative action exists to protect you, the underrepresented, from all of the prejudices and biases and privileges that the majority have at any given point.

unfortunately, only the underprivileged even realize that and the privileged never realize the advantages that they receive, making the strife all the more painful. how to solve this? i don’t know… frankly, i have no idea. is it possible, even?

instead, i get to watch people suffer through these emotions, this feeling of confusion and frustration, uncertainty and anger. when your performance is poor and you cannot identify with anyone around you and you become angry at yourself for all of this, rather than realizing why the situation exists and trying to prove it… when you do this, you destroy your self. it is more important to make certain that you can eliminate the boundaries, break down the walls, at least for the next person.

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