Harassment is never okay.

Hello, everyone. So, like, um, everyone here, I'm also white and (I think?) middle class. I'm also a chick. I believe we've made this part clear.

That said, despite whatever class I may be in, I kind of grew up in the ghetto, but to be honest, didn't really realize it until I started going to school outside of it. I remember looking around near the end of my 5th grade year and noticing that I was literally the only white person in my class. I can't tell you if that's an accurate descriptor of how my entire elementary school education went, because I honestly don't remember. I didn't notice or care what race anyone else was. It didn't make a difference because I was tiny and didn't care about such things.

Honestly though, to me, it really just feels like discrimination based on race is an issue that just isn't from our time. I don't feel like I've passed judgments based on race nor do I really feel like anyone I know has. Because of this, I really feel like laws meant to "level the playing field" based on race are really superfluous. Obviously, we shouldn't get rid of anti-discrimination laws. There needs to be a legal basis for persecuting the kind of jerkfaces who would make decisions that way, but I just don't think it's widespread enough to require things like affirmative action to get there. John brought up the idea of equal opportunity employers and that's great, so I don't understand why there are practices that explicitly take into account things like race and gender.

The fact is that whether you are black, white, hispanic, Asian, or whatever race you identify as, you should be judged by the qualities you have and not what race you are. That said, there are definitely people that are at a disadvantage. It is so much harder to go from a family that has never gone to college and expects you to go straight to work after (or during) high school to a college education. That is a hard road that requires a lot of work and that sucks, however, that road is just as hard regardless of what race you are. If you are white and impoverished, that doesn't make you less impoverished. Basically, as far as leveling the playing field goes, I think it can be necessary, but I really think the factors that need to be leveled might be race-corrolated, but that's certainly not what they should be based on.

Unfortunately, I do think there's a bigger issue that America has today regarding discrimination, and I think that that's discrimination based on gender. In case you haven't gathered by now, I'm a girl majoring in computer science, which is a heavily male-dominated field. The problem is that while being a different race doesn't really affect anything, being a different gender does (a bit). Females get pregnant (Guys do not). Societally, females are more likely to be stay-at-home parents than males are. Honestly though, I really feel like the major problem is just the way people treat gender relations. Societally, there are a lot of differences between what men and women are expected to be, and a lot of them are crap. For example, there was a recent controversy about a woman who entered a fighting game tournament and eventually quit because of being sexually harassed. When asked for comment about it, the coach actually said that "the sexual harassment is part of our culture, and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it's not the fighting game community."

Obviously, you can find horror stories anywhere about any discrimination, but this seems so much more widespread. Genders are different and I don't think we as a society have really moved past that people can be whatever they want to be (or be into whoever they want to be). I'm a programmer and I feel like because I'm a girl, I have to work harder and be better than my male counterparts because I'm absolutely terrified of being hired just because I'm a chick. I remember when my friend got into college with me I was so excited, not just for him, but because that meant that someone with similar qualifications to me was accepted into the same program. And while I guess it's hard to argue against something that makes me work harder and be better, that's just not something I should have to be afraid of.

I firmly believe that in a lot of respects (and as cheesy as it sounds), diversity is its own reward. If you're working on designing a game (I admit I have a bit of a narrow focus), you want as many different ideas and viewpoints as you can. If you were constantly surrounded by the people you grew up with and went to school with, then how much would you really be challenged and grow? I believe that there are so many advantages to casting as broad a net as possible and I believe that there are qualified people in just about all of those categories. However, if you're not qualified for a job, you shouldn't get it solely on the basis of being the token [insert minority here].