A few weeks ago, my Cultural Diversity professor gave an entire series of lectures on how tax policy has been used to oppress African Americans. This bothers me greatly for several reasons. Cultural Diversity should be about studying race relations, nuetrally without studying tax policy. Sociologists are not economists. Nor can they speak with any kind of expertise on that subject.

Blaming Reagan's tax policies, even those which are misguided on the increasing differences between wealth of the super-rich and the poor is misguided. There are many factors for the increasing wealth of the elite, mainly the growth of stocks and technology, which has allowed for some ultra-rich people in the new 'technological revolution'. We saw this in the beginning of the industrial revolution, so why isn't it surpising?

The problem isn't that the middle class have too little taxes. It's that they are not fairly applied. Many poor-middle class people can't afford to pay regressive property and sales taxes. The rich just know how to abuse the tax exemptions that are intented for the middle/lower class people, and use them to pay almost nothing in taxes.

The study of tax policy in Cultural Diversity is part of a disturbing trend.There are too many so-called scientists who use science to make a political point. It is worst when such people are fast to condemn their critics by saying that other non-scientists don't understand or are not looking deep enough in the issue. Science is too often biased towards liberalism, ignoring the complexities of our world that requires ideas from all ideology. After all, our world today is very complex. Disagreement should be norm.

When we are studying Cultural Diversity, we shouldn't be studying tax policy. Leave that to Micro Economics or a similiar class. Cultural diversity should be about studying race relations, and just that. Let's not fool ourselves with neo-marxist conflict theory that paints us white anglo-saxons are being so evil. Let's celebrate differences in race, and work together productively in fighting for positive social change.