I’m pretty lucky, when you think about it. I’m a 20-year-old white female, which, in today’s society, doesn’t lead me to much discrimination.

In fact, the only discrimination I can remember facing was in elementary school, where boys would get called on all the time, even though I always knew the answer and I always raised my hand.

Fortunately for me, all this discrimination did was make me mad and motivate me to work even harder.

However, I am an exception to the rule. Discrimination much more consequential than teachers having favorites is all around in many different forms, regardless of what we in our homogenous little worlds might think. Proposition 209 is a prime example.

Proposition 209 is the California law, passed by 54 percent of California voters last year, which “prohibits the use of racial preferences in admissions decisions at state universities,” according to a campus press service article.

With Prop. 209, we’re taking away any rules concerning who can go to school based on race. Black kids can’t go to college just because they’re black, etc.

This sounds OK on the surface. After all, shouldn’t decisions about college admissions be based on who deserves it academically? If I have higher grades and a higher ACT score, then I deserve to go to school more than the next person, regardless of my race.

Except, college isn’t about the select few with the highest grades. College is about people from all backgrounds coming together to learn about each other as we learn about the world.

Now, there is a very real possibility minority students won’t be able to go to public universities because of the Proposition 209 precedent.

Many of these students come from low-income families and low-income schools, where GPAs aren’t nearly as important as survival. Does keeping these students out of public universities help them, or, for that matter, us?

Those who are in favor of Prop. 209 say we will all be better off now, but actually, it hurts us, too.

If we refuse to look at the situation from the point of view of those directly benefiting from affirmative action, let’s look at it in terms of what it does for us.

Many of us at Iowa State come from small, rural communities, where diversity is an unknown concept.

Even in a medium-sized city like Sioux Falls, SD, with a population of over 100,000, I had virtually no contact with African-Americans or people of other minorities.

The only experience many of us have had with people “different” than us has been here at school. While the race issues at ISU may not be much fun to deal with or read about, they make all of us aware of the way life really is.

We will deal with people from different races, cultures and economic backgrounds in our lives — both personally and professionally. So, since college is the training ground for the rest of our lives, it only makes sense that we be forced to deal with race-related situations.

If state universities adopt Proposition 209-like stances on affirmative action, minority students will most likely stop enrolling in public universities and instead attend private or historically black colleges.

In fact, no African-American students enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley’s law school, “citing concerns about the racial environment,” even though 14 were admitted.

It is entirely possible that ISU would see a decline in its already low minority enrollment numbers, which would affect all of us. In a perfect world, affirmative action never would have been necessary. Everyone would get a chance to work hard, and if they did, they would be rewarded by getting to go to college. However, we don’t live in a perfect world.

It would be great if racism and discrimination didn’t exist, but they do. People are still judged more on the color of their skin then on their merits.

Everyone who is favor of Prop. 209 would also attest to that, since their main concerns are the jobs given to minorities solely because of their quota-filling color.

I can’t wait for the day when minority-oriented programs are no longer necessary — when all people have an equal opportunity and are given equal consideration.

But, if you think we can go without affirmative action because race problems have been eliminated, you’re wrong. The reasons behind creating affirmative action are still here and won’t go away.

Affirmative action doesn’t solve all of the racism and discrimination problems facing us. However, until we end discrimination, it is necessary — and beneficial to all of us.

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Sara Ziegler is a sophomore in journalism from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.