Column: Class warfare wages on

A recent Mike Luckovich cartoon showed President George W. Bush giving a speech declaring "I have a dream that one day, men will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by their alumni connections." The cartoon's parallel to Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech on the Washington Mall in 1963 reminds us that only 40 years ago this country was segregated. Blacks could not stay in motels with whites, drink from the same water fountains, or use the same bathrooms. If you don't have a very good concept of time, your parents were in college then. It wasn't that long ago! The system was run by and for privileged white people, and blacks were still virtually enslaved. Little has changed, and the melting pot doesn't include everyone - instead, it has a distinctly European flavor.

The number of minorities at this school is extremely low (six black students total in my four classes). A trip to the bathroom or the Bryan Center shows that the majority of Duke manual laborers are either black or Latino Often I feel like this is the Old South and these black and Latino laborers that wash our toilets, serve us food and throw out our trash remain in socio-economic slavery, just unofficially. Do they really have the ability to rise up? These workers stay in their jobs until they are too old to continue them, and then their children take over.

The subsistence level of income that these workers earn can never lead to asset accumulation - a conversation with your cleaning person relays their meager level of income and lifestyle. Most of them don't own houses, don't own much more than a car (if that) and work all their lives. And some have the nerve to declare these people lazy! We need not be so blinded by our misperceptions: Their urban education is horrible, their parents work horrible hours and more than one job, they have a slim chance for success, and they become manual laborers.

There is a large gap between the rich and the poor in this country, one marked by a color divide. Blacks and Lationos are much more likely to live a far worse lifestyle than whites. How can we help our system embrace all its people? After all, America is responsible for the degradation of blacks by enslaving them and then denying them equal rights and setting them on a path for menial labor and poverty. If this is actually the land of the free, then what can we do to help minorities enjoy the same sort of lifestyle and opportunities as whites?

One way is the improvement of inner-city schools, but this has been largely ineffective. I am incredulous of the Bush administration's willingness to achieve better schools; after all, Bush's massive budget did not help with the high debts most states are running. School vouchers are just empty rhetoric and do not address the crux of the problem - public schools must be improved.

The University of Michigan has been defending its affirmative action policy, which Bush is against. He blames the system for being too arbitrary since it relies on race to choose candidates. But didn't Bush receive the same sort of arbitrary boost when he applied to Yale? His lack of success there and past criminal record show that he might have been unqualified for Yale. Many students at Duke are under-qualified, but get in because they are legacies or have famous last names. It's un-American to look past the arbitrary help to rich whites because of a system structured for their benefit while not giving minorities some boost, considering their subordinate position in society.

Moreover, diversity helps the learning environment and lowers racial prejudice. Bush lauds diversity but then declares that a program that helps blacks enter higher education is bad - a huge contradiction. Alternatives to affirmative action (e.g., Jeb Bush's Florida program) are unsuccessful and significantly lower diversity. We should not lower the number of minorities on campuses; if anything, we need to increase it. Affirmative action will level the playing field and actually work toward making America a true melting pot. There will always be drawbacks and time-delay in the system, but affirmative action is noble and should be continued.

Unfortunately, Bush's stance toward affirmative action further pushes the country into class warfare. It goes along the same lines as his tax cut where the wealthiest 5 percent receives nearly all the benefits of the cut. Why is this administration practicing the policies of Medieval autocracy in which the wealthy and privileged rule only for their own benefit? The Republican party is still pandering to racial elitism. We cannot stand by and watch as this country slides down the slippery slope of re-segregation.