Joseph Green remembers how isolated he felt as the only black
student in graduate school at the University of South Dakota. Of
the university's 8,100 students in 1990, 18 were black, and
Green was the only minority in graduate school. Green said he
felt isolated because the professors and students felt that he
had to become "the authority on race." He even recalls how one
professor wanted him to talk about the plight of blacks in urban
areas of Chicago. Green did not know what to say because he had
never been to Chicago. He was from the Washington, D.C., area.
In another incident, he recalled how one of his classmates - who
was a teacher - invited him to his school for Black History
month because some of his students had never seen a black person
in real life. Green, who is the director of the Educational
Opportunity Program at Marquette University, said affirmative
action is necessary because it helps to even the educational
playing field. I know the term affirmative action gets people
polarized, but the rea