Doc: Yes, Mr. Christensen?

Jared: I have something I’d like to discuss today, sir.

Doc: Okay…Let’s hear it.

Jared: I’d like to discuss how affirmative action discriminates against members of the majority.

Justyce: [Eyebrows rise.]

SJ: You’re not even serious.

Jared: Oh, I certainly am. Let’s observe, shall we? I’m ranked number two in our class, I’m captain of the baseball team, I do community service on weekends, and I got higher test scores than Justyce…yet he got into Yale early action, and I didn’t. I know for a fact it’s because I’m white and he’s black.

Doc: That’s quite an assumption, Mr. Christensen—

Justyce: Hold up…what makes you so sure you got higher scores than me?

Jared: Dude, I got a fifteen-eighty on the SAT.

Manny: What’d you get, Jus?

Justyce: Fifteen-sixty.

Jared: See?

SJ: What about the ACT?

Jared: Thirty-three.

SJ: Jus?

Justyce: Thirty-four.

Jared: Bullshit!

Doc: Watch it, Jared.

Jared: Dude, there’s no way he got a thirty-four.

Justyce: What reason do I have to lie, man?

Jared: It just doesn’t make sense—

Justyce: Why doesn’t it?

SJ: Because it negates his assumption that because he’s white and you’re black, he’s more intelligent than you are.

Jared: Why don’t you stay out of it, SJ?

Jus: Hold up, man—

Doc: This is an open forum, Mr. Christensen. Anyone in this room can contribute to the discussion.

Jared: Whatever.

Manny: So let me get this straight, J: It bugs you that Justyce is just as smart as you?

Jared: That’s not my point.

SJ: You said affirmative action “discriminates against members of the majority,” and you cited Jus’s acceptance to Yale and your lack thereof as supporting evidence for that assertion. Ignoring how effing racist it is to assume your test scores would be higher than Justyce’s, the counterevidence—namely that you and Justyce are more or less equally qualified—has nullified your assertion.

Jared: It doesn’t nullify anything.

Justyce: [Shakes his head.]

Jared: If we’re equals, we both should’ve gotten in.

Manny: You got rejected?

Jared: …Deferred.

SJ: So you’ll probably still get in—

Jared: That’s not the point!

Doc: Let’s keep it professional, Mr. Christensen.

Manny: For real, J. Chill.

Jared: No, dude. I’m not going to “chill.” You of all people should know what kinda shit I caught from my dad for getting deferred.

Manny: That doesn’t have anything to do with Jus, though, man.

Jared: Yeah it does. He took a spot I didn’t get because Yale has to fill a quota—

Justyce: Excuse me?

Jared: Just stating the facts, man.

SJ: Those aren’t facts, dipshit.

Doc: Sarah-Jane…

SJ: Justyce got in because he deserved to.

Justyce: Thank you.

Jared: I deserved to get in too! Affirmative action is bullshit.

Doc: If y’all can’t reel this in, I’m shutting it down. Final warning.

Jared: Point is, it gives an unfair advantage to minorities. So, okay, Justyce and I might be “equals” or whatever. But there are other minorities without the qualifications I have who will get in before I do. That’s just not fair.

SJ: Jared, let me ask you something.

Jared: Like I have another option.

SJ: So as a nonboarder, your tuition here is the same as mine…we’ll make it a nice round number and say thirty-six thousand dollars per year. Our parents pay on a semester basis, which means that in seven semesters, yours have invested…Who has a calculator?

Justyce: A hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars.

Manny: Damn!

Doc: [Cuts Manny a warning look.]

Manny: My bad, Doc.

SJ: For that insane sum of money, we’re getting the best of the best of the best. Tuition includes laptops, tablets, and access to more scholarly databases than most colleges have; we’ve got the most current editions of all college-level textbooks; our library is like…I can’t even tell you; we have test prep courses built into our curriculum from the moment we start ninth grade; and I’m pretty sure something like ninety-seven percent of the teachers at this school are PhDs, right, Doc?

Doc: Something like that.

SJ: You wouldn’t expect anything less based on the amount of money you’re paying, right?

Jared: Do you have a point here?

SJ: I do. Now say you have a black guy—not Justyce, but someone else—whose single parent’s income falls beneath the poverty line. He lives in a really crummy area and goes to a public school that has fifteen-year-old textbooks and no computers. Most of the teachers are fresh out of college and leave after a year. Some psychological testing has been done at this school, and the majority of students there, this guy included, are found to suffer from low self-esteem and struggle with standardized testing because of stereotype threat—basically, the guy knows people expect him to underperform, which triggers severe test anxiety that causes him to underperform.

Doc: [Grins.]

SJ: Now erase the two backgrounds. We’ll keep it simple and say GPA-wise, you have a four-point-oh and he has a three-point-six. Test scores, you got a fifteen-eighty, right? Well, this guy got an eleven-twenty. Based on GPA and scores only, which one of you is more likely to get into a good college?

Jared: Me. Obviously.

SJ: Is that fair? You’ve had access to WAY more than he has…would it be fair for a college to consider only GPA and test scores in determining who deserves to get in?

Jared: It’s not my fault my parents can afford to send me to a good school—

Justyce: Is it his fault his mom can’t, man?

Everyone: […]

SJ: I’m not saying the system is perfect. Yes, people who legitimately aren’t as qualified get picked over people who are, and yes, it’s usually people of color getting picked over white people. But before you say something “isn’t fair,” you should consider your starting point versus someone else’s.

Jared: Whatever. All I know is that no matter what college I end up at, when I see a minority, I’m gonna wonder if they’re qualified to be there.

Everyone: […]

Justyce: Damn, it’s like that, Jared?

Jared: I mean…wait, that didn’t come out right—

SJ: And there you have it, folks.

Everyone: […]

December 13

DEAR MARTIN,

Can you explain why everywhere I turn, I run into people who wanna keep me down?

Tonight I went home because I decided to share the Yale news with Mama in person, and while she was ecstatic, what I faced when I left the house brought me back as low as the “affirmative action is bullshit” discussion from class today.

Basically, when I rounded the corner to head to my bus stop, Trey and a bunch of the Black Jihad dudes (the white guy included) were standing there “shootin’ the sh*t,” as my granddaddy used to say. When Trey asked me what the f%#k I was so happy about, I actually told them about Yale.

Yeah, I was trippin’, Martin.