Action speaks louder than ...

By Claudia-BeDan
The Metropolitan

I never thought much about the color of my skin until I came to the United States.

I was born in England. I ended up in the states after my mother married a man in the Air Force. We moved to a predominantly black neighborhood in Inglewood, Calif. This was a change for me, but I didnāt think much about it.
I was only 7.

I started thinking about it when my family moved to Fontana, Calif., a predominantly white area. This is where I found out I was black. I was 9 years old.

Mine was one of three black families in that area, and I learned quickly that some people didnāt like that we were there. My friends and I got into a yelling match over pieces of cardboard in a field with some other kids who lived in the ćold houses.ä Each of our groups wanted them to build a clubhouse.

One of the kids during the confusion bolted for my bike, a brand new 10-speed. I chased and shoved him with all my might, and he did a Pete Rose, a head-first slide, across the gravely street.

Then someone said the kid was going to get his father, and Iād better leave because he was in the Ku Klux Klan. I didnāt know what that meant. But I figured it out as they roared down the street after me in a beat-up station wagon

with wood paneling on the sides and bumper stickers with the Confederate flag.

When they called me nigger, I knew it was something bad. Their faces were all twisted with hate, and they said my parents had no right to have their house ÷ even though they paid for it like everyone else.

I know all white people in America arenāt like that. Some people go out of their way to be nice to me. I think this is why people think affirmative action is no longer needed in American society.

Most people are nothing like the guys in that station wagon.

But Iāve watched peopleās expressions change when they meet me for the first time after weāve talked on the phone. Iāve had people react really positively to me in interviews only to be told later that they were going with someone else.

I know this kind of thing happens all the time. It happens to everyone at some time or another. But I canāt help but question why I couldnāt get one job when I had just as much skill and education as the white woman they chose.

Iāve never wanted to be hired for a job just because I am black, and I donāt think the world owes me something extra. I only want an equal shot.

Affirmative action is not racial preference for minorities, it just legislates minds. If we truly lived in a color-blind society, we wouldnāt need this policy. My color sometimes dictates how Iām treated and what people think I can do.

Those who cry about minorities getting jobs just because of skin color need to stop and consider how many people have gotten jobs just because they are white.

People are still judged to a large extent by their appearances.

The way they talk.

The way they dress.

And until such characteristics are no longer considered by anyone who is in a position to hire, affirmative action is a necessity.