Myself and many members of my generation were raised to be color blind (racially/socially) and subsequently we become sensitive and begin objecting to the way we are labeled by others, even while we assign labels to those around us. Call us the Punk Rock/Alternative Generation, the product of the Baby Boomers/Hippies. Our parents witnessed and took part in the Civil Rights Movement.
True: Women had very few personal liberties or rights prior to 1984.
False: The Women's Movement / Feminism has improved quality of life.
True: People of all Nationalities, Religions, and Racial backgrounds have been discriminated against at one time or another.
False: The Civil Rights Movement / Affirmative Action has improved life for everyone.
Candid moment: I am a White Female, over the age of 30, I am college educated, I am technically savvy, I belong to an 'Alternative Religion' (I am neither Christian, Jewish nor a Follower of Islam), I live an 'Alternative Lifestyle' (I am not your standard married mom, I'm single and have no ambition to change that.) I spent the first half of my life in the Seattle area, I have also lived in Utah, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Michigan. Knowing these facts about me, you would easily assume that I am a Liberal and a Feminist.
Personal Judgment: I don't have a very good opinion of Liberals. I like to argue and discuss issues, and find Liberals to be generally uneducated. The few I have encountered that are well spoken, I respect their right to an opinion even if it is different from my own. However, most Liberals will revert to trying to make me ashamed of myself because I don't agree with them, usually through accusing me of the most extreme end of the spectrum. And Feminists? I think that Feminist need to take a step back and look at the damage that they are doing. Fact is that the economy has suffered, in the last 20 years it has become almost impossible for the average person to manage on a single income, and that is partially because expectations have changed, it is now expected for people to be attached or in a relationship, and for both of those individuals to have a full time job, and if the couple in question has children, then fully 25% of the units income is now spent on child care and another 25% is spent on rent/mortgage.. that leaves you with 50% of the income (or 1 person's income) to feed, clothe, pay bills, etc. You can see how that math works even if you failed math beyond the 5th grade. I think that if you are part of a unit you should have the choice as to whether he, she, or both parties work. But I can go on ad nauseam in that argument.
The Equality Argument / Affirmative Action: I want real equality. I want everyone to be treated with equal deference and respect, I want real equal opportunity, where pre-employment screening doesn't include racial and gender questions. I want scholarships that don't exclude specific demographics. Which means, affirmative action is actually hurting us as a society. As a woman, affirmative action has been in my favor a couple times. But I have also seen black people get jobs not because of skill or education, but because my company needed to make a quota before the end of the quarter. My girlfriend got a job as a team manager because there are not a huge number of women who do tech work, and if they hired her then they could check boxes for hiring a woman and having a woman in management. She had the necessary skills, and she did a good job, but that isn't why they hired her for the position. I was given a coveted position and transfer to Maryland, because I am a white woman, and the demographic there was saturated with blacks. Have no doubts that I was trained for the role, I had been doing it for 5 years in another city, but the company transferred me so that the Maryland location could have racial diversity. I abhor seeing race or religion in media headlines. You can take me to task on this, Whites are subject to racism too, its not restricted to Blacks, Asians, or Latinos. I should know, I was fired from a job for using the word 'minority' the liberal ass-hat in charge of HR called it a micro-aggression, which is a manufactured way of saying "Millenials are stupidly sensitive and if you are white and anyone takes offense to what you say we can fire you based on your skin color." fact is that the way society is grooming the next generation Affirmative Action creates a false sense of entitlement. To be frank I will say, the world owes you NOTHING, if you are not willing to work for it, I don't care how many of your ancestors you think my ancestors took a dump on. Not one person in my family tree (I have done genealogy going back 600 years) owned a slave, a mine yes, a rail-road no. We had Ambassadors, Senators, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, Writers, Scientists, Real-estate royalty, Farmers/Ranchers, and soldiers in every war the U.S. has ever been a part of.
Key Takeaway?
We can't change the past. So learn from it and move on.