Op-Ed "Affirmative action inspires thought"

Dublin Core

Title

Op-Ed "Affirmative action inspires thought"

Description

This Op-Ed published in The Collegian features two opinion articles arguing for opposing views on affirmative action. The first was written by student Danielle Orron who wrote in support of affirmative action. In her piece, Orron followed a "question-answer" style of writing in which she asks the reader to "imagine you are ___," followed by "Affirmative action says you ____." In this way, she challenges the reader to place themselves in the position that those who benefit from affirmative action are in, and then reaffirms them by dismissing the stereotypes held against these people. The second piece, written by student Michael Herbert, was in opposition of affirmative action, but rather than writing solely his opinion, instead, Herbert focused on the way the discussion was held. According to Herbert, after a comment made by classics department professor, Julie Laskaris, his peers were "so intimidated by Larskaris' statements they became unwilling to offer their opinions." Herbert goes on to compare this incident to McCarthyism, but instead of red-baiting people have now resorted to race-baiting in which, "Mere charges of racism are enough to cost people their jobs or end the careers of public officials." He ends by expressing his desire to engage in "intellectual diversity" rather than engaging in hurtful "ad hominem attacks."

Source

Orron, Danielle and Michael Herbert. "Affirmative action inspires thought." The University of Richmond Collegian 89, no.19. (February 20, 2003): 11. http://collegian.richmond.edu/cgi-bin/richmond?a=d&d=COL20030220.2.30&srpos=11&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-

Publisher

The Collegian, University of Richmond

Date

2003-02-20

Format

Language

English

Type

Identifier

Collegian89.17.11-20030220.jpg

Coverage

Richmond (Va.)

Text Item Type Metadata

Student Contributor

Files

http://memory.richmond.edu/files/originals-for-csv-imports/Collegian89.17.11-20030220.jpg

Citation

Orron, Danielle and Herbert, Michael, “Op-Ed "Affirmative action inspires thought",” University of Richmond Race & Racism Project, accessed February 17, 2025, https://memory.richmond.edu/items/show/1659.