By John McCoy and Kirsten C. Tynan
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 10, 1997

Affirmative action advertising fallacious

Editor:

This is an open letter to the Office of Affirmative Action

To Whom It May Concern:

In your new campaign for affirmative action, you present us with an image, and a metaphor. Two boxes of crayons are shown, one containing all green crayons, the other containing crayons of numerous colors from across the spectrum. Above this image are printed but five words: "Which one would you choose?" ­ the obvious implication being that, save perhaps for a few eccentric artists, all right-thinking persons would select the second box.

As far as advertising ideas go, it's a cute one. But as an argument for policy, it's bad. In fact, it's not only bad ­ it's revolting.

The reason one would choose the latter box of crayons over the former is that a crayon's desirability is determined, almost exclusively, by its color. Are we to infer from this campaign that the same is to be held true of human beings? Perhaps I am taking the Office's metaphor too literally, but the idea of an institution of higher learning strolling down the aisles of undergraduate applications and selecting "boxes" of students based on something as superficial as the color of their skin is absolutely grotesque.

Diversity is a valuable goal. A university should, it can quite reasonably be argued, strive for diversity of experience, of outlook, and of ideology.

But the focus should be on that what is, at least we hope, truly essential in a prospective student: his or her mind. The one blessing of your crayon metaphor is that it makes absolutely clear where the focus of current affirmative action programs truly lies.

John McCoy

management information systems sophomore

Kirsten C. Tynan

mechanical engineering senior