If this college wishes to promote diversity, all views should be welcomed.

Two weeks ago, one of my professors announced in class that there is a job opening for a note taker. Since I take good notes, I figured that I could help a person out and get paid for it as well. To sign up, I just needed to head to Disabled Students Program Services and fill out the paperwork. While filling it out, I saw a section that asked for what my race/ethnicity was. I figured that had no relevance whatsoever to my job, so I crossed it out and wrote “Do not spot check.”

If I am taking notes, who I am and where my ancestors came from have no bearing on my job. The reason I do not wish to be spot checked is as follows: I am aware that there are numerous groups of individuals that feel they have been short-changed in life and use statistics such as this to prove it. I do not wish to be part of that game. As one would figure, I was called in to make the correction to my form and was then informed of my mistake in doing this. I just want a job where I am helping other people get the education that they need. Unfortunately, I am now part of the oppression in this country.

My feeling on this is that there is no bigotry against whites and those who share my view on this topic. I do not feel that race, sex, ethnicity or anything along those lines should have anything to do with whether you get a certain job or attend a certain college. Merit should always stand first and foremost. There are groups that feel that they have been unfairly treated and want to be granted preferential treatment because of the color of their skin. The benchmark is not against all groups, it is targeted solely at whites.

If you don’t believe me, just look at the yellow signs around campus calling the Republicans “Rich, White Boy Neo-Nazis!” This is in poor form. It seems that if you don’t agree with a person’s philosophy, you directly assault them and attack their character. The signs also attack David Horowitz and call him “a gnome” among other things. All of this is because they don’t agree with his views on reparations.

There are other groups that are much more over-represented than whites. Asians make up a far greater portion of the University of California system versus their part of the population. How about Jewish people? Do you know that Jews make up 3 percent of the total U.S. population? Yet 11 of the 100 U.S. senators are Jewish. They are over-represented by 400 percent! This is clearly unfair and there should be a remedy put in place to fix this disproportion immediately!

No, there should not. They all earned their place in Congress and deserve to fulfill the duties of the offices that they have been elected to. This goes along with everyone else that earns a position somewhere. The composition of a person’s background (race, religion, ethnicity) should not have any bearing on what they can and can’t do.

I know the counter arguments to all of this. There are people that are fighting hundreds of years of oppression. Now, it is I who should pay. None of my ancestors were part of the slave trade. They came to the country much later. Yet it is suggested by some groups that I owe reparations to them! To counter this argument, I may suggest to these people that maybe some blacks owe reparations to other blacks since it was their ancestors who initiated the slave trade in the first place!

The thing that bothers me the most is not the fact that people are arguing the issue of reparations. It’s the fact that the argument is not one of logic, but one of defilement. If someone holds a belief that you do not agree with, you attack him or her personally.

The most obvious cases are when conservative speakers come to this campus. Ward Connerly, Oliver North and now David Horowitz. May I remind everyone that this is a campus that is proud of its diversity and its diverse views on several topics. But when a view that people don’t agree with appears, people directly assault the person, not the argument.

I do not know if the Nexus was afraid to publish the article submitted by Horowitz (against reparations) as the Campus Republicans suggest. The fact that the Nexus decided not to print the ad shows that as much as the Nexus would like to be viewed as an independent paper, they too are willing to censor their material!

I invite everyone to come out on Wednesday to listen to David Horowitz and hear his arguments against reparations. You may not agree with him, but allow him to be heard. If you feel his logic is flawed, then challenge him on his points and win the battle of merit. It seems as though the people attacking him are worried that people may hear him and end up agreeing.

Michael Warnken is an economics and philosophy major.