The social justice event that I attended was the speech given by Shirley Wilcher, she is an affirmative action specialist and has directed the American Association for Affirmative Action. Affirmative action has a vast number of relations to the things that we have read and discussed in class. Affirmative action provides equal opportunities to people of different races, sexual orientation, disability etc; affirmative action not only takes place in the work force, but in education as well, at the college level.

During her talk she touched on a wide variety of topics, and talked about how she still experiences racism today. This is something that truly surprises me because I personally grew up accepting people of different races, I do not think twice about talking to someone who is of a different race than I am. Shirley is an African American woman, and she gave many examples of how she has witnessed and experienced racism still today’s. The example that I really found shocking was the story she told about when she was in Washington D.C. She was with a white co-worker, and they flagged down a cab for her. When Shirley put her hand on the door handle to get into the cab, the cab driver drove away. I was amazed when she told this story because society has come such a long way, and I think that in this day in age everyone should be accepting. There is no reason for racism or discrimination, but people still believe in it today.

           We have done a lot of readings in class that relate to racism. I connected her talk to the readings White Privilege by McIntosh, Privilege, Power, and Difference by Johnson, and lastly SCWAMP by Grinner. In all of these articles they touch on the fact that whiteness is valued in our society. The main point of affirmative action is to value not only whiteness, but every race, every gender, social class, ability, age and sexual orientation.

           This can connect to things that happen in our society today, in the workplace companies are required to have written affirmative action plans in order to prevent any type of discrimination. Through affirmative action, everyone gets a fair and equal opportunity to obtain a job, it also creates a more diverse environment in the workplace that may not have been established if affirmative action was not necessary. An affirmative action case that is very widely known is the Fisher v. University of Texas case; Fisher applied to the University of Texas and felt that she was denied because she was white, and that some of her classmates of color got accepted to the college, having lower grades then she did. The equal opportunity and affirmative action at RIC, can relate to us all. It states that the college “does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity.” This policy is not only used for applications, but for loans and scholarships, and also is relevant is the process of hiring new workers and professors.