Legislation has damaged the progress of minority groups

The presidential race of 2008 was one of the most controversial elections America has ever seen. It was not the issues at stake that made the election so intense; rather, it was the candidates that included the first real African-American candidate and the first true woman contender in a presidential race. The former was Sen. Barack Obama, and the latter Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The fact that these two senators were labeled in the media according to their minority groups as opposed to their names and governmental positions was a disgraceful representation of the discrimination in America.

America has often been hailed as the leader of the free world and the birthplace of true equality. In some respects this is true; a white male has limitless opportunities regardless of his socio-economic background. However, the idea of America as a pioneer of freedom is a distorted one. If all citizens in America were truly equal, the media coverage of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would have been centered on political issues and their beliefs, as opposed to their gender and skin color.

America has been far behind other countries in the advancement of minority groups. In India, for example, where the caste system still exists in rural parts of the country and women are occasionally expected to offer a dowry to their husbands, Indira Ghandi was elected prime minister as early as 1967. Today, the number of women in the legislative branch in the United States falls behind the number of women in the Uzbekistan government.

The need for legislation that aims to erase the different kinds of discrimination in America has been exhausted. The presence of legislation such as Title IX and Affirmative Action have offered opposition rather than assistance to the very efforts they have been implemented to help. Court cases such as Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke in 1978 have demonstrated that reverse discrimination, the process of favoring a minority group over the majority group, is very real indeed.

The feminist movement also has its faults: women want the benefits of the same pay and job opportunities offered to men, but it is only men who are required to register for a draft card on their 18th birthday. According to Title IX, girls can play on the same football team as boys if they’re good enough, but boys cannot compete with girls on the same volleyball court.

Almost a half a century later, these fundamental civil rights have been reduced to a mathematical formula, the minority quota system that public institutions must meet because of the legislation designated to help them. In the 21st century, we should not be looking at our politicians and the leaders of our country as products of the American quota system and representations of their minority groups, but as legitimate world leaders and politicians.

Briana Murphy is a senior at Colony High School.