After reading Jim Lala's column, "Liberal students' silent protest doesn't need words to be whiny"; (SN 4/26), I was utterly appalled. Not only was his attack against African-American college students belittling, it was inaccurate. The last time that I checked, affirmative action was not just for African-American students. It is a known fact that white women are the No. 1 benefactors of affirmative action programs in college admissions and employment. Affirmative action also helps benefit legacy students, like those whose parents are alumni of a university.

I attended one of those "poor, inner-city schools" that Lala mentioned. Just because I graduated from a school in Detroit, it does not mean that I do not have the required skills needed to succeed here at MSU. Yes, I will admit that oftentimes students from suburban schools are better prepared for college than students from inner-city schools, but just look at the contrasting amount of funding the school districts receive. In Detroit, the per-student funding is a lot less than it is in the suburbs of Bloomfield Hills. How can one expect students from contrasting districts to perform at the same level when the funding isn't the same?

That's why retention programs are necessary here at MSU. They are not designed to "save" struggling students who shouldn't have been accepted in the first place. They're here to help qualified students catch up on subjects that weren't thoroughly taught in their inner-city high schools because of insufficient funding.

It's really sad that we have miseducated people like Lala using the paper to spread inaccurate stereotypes -and just because he is a minority, it does not make his biased statements any more justifiable.

Ayanna Wheeler
journalism junior