EMAIL OF THE DAY

It’s lengthy but I can’t get it out of my head, so here goes:

As a victim of affirmative action, I think I know a little bit about just what happens to a Hispanic student at a prestigious university.

I was accepted into an accelerated pre-med program at the University of California. My SATs were very good, as was my GPA. I graduated 4th in my high school class. Both of my parents were college-educated; my mother worked in a nuclear test lab, and my father was the proverbial Rocket Scientist.

The high school I attended was a joke. All of the district’s money, expanded programs, etc., were funneled into a different high school. I could not transfer there because Hispanics were “under-represented” at the school near my house, which was the one I did attend. We were supposed to have a special ‘gifted student’ program, which I qualified for. We did indeed have one. It was co-ed PE. The good school had advanced math, languages, physics. We had volleyball.

Every single semester started exactly the same way for me. I would get my assigned classes, then spend the rest of the day transferring into the ones I needed. It got to the point that all the teachers knew I’d be in the advanced class, so they’d save me a spot while I got transferred out of the remedial classes. Why was I always placed in the remedial classes? Well, with a last name like MARTINEZ it was just impossible for me to be able to read or write. The other Hispanic kids simply went along with it, taking the path of least resistance. Over at the good school, which had a population of 40% Hispanic, only three Hispanic kids were in the advanced classes. I was the only one at mine.

When I started the accelerated program I was in deep trouble, and not because of my name. The high school had never had anything higher than elementary geometry for math, and so I was already a year behind. The counselors bluntly told me that the only reason I was in the program at all was because of my ‘heritage’. After two years of that I transferred over to the English department.

This is where it turned into a farce…

For the rest, check out the Letters Page.