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Argumentative Essay On Race-Conscious Admissions

1013 Words5 Pages

The main precedent that has stuck with the court from Bakke to now Fisher is that a diverse student body is a compelling enough interest for a university to pursue. This goal is to be carried out in a narrowly tailored manner which the court has accepted as a race-conscious admissions program. The program is deemed constitutional on the basis that it only uses race as a plus factor in the admissions process. These programs, however, run in stark contrast to the provisions set forth in the Equal Protection Clause; in which the state is not allowed to treat individuals differently based on the category of race. The race-conscious admissions program albeit better than a pure quota system still uses race as a crucial factor. I would agree with …show more content…

Schools should engage in reviewing SAT scores, personal achievements, the ability to overcome adversity and other attributes that every individual can attain. When we consider race as an important factor in the admissions process it insulates applicants who are of a particular race from the rest of the applicant pool. The individual has no control over the color of their own skin which makes it illogical to compare students by an attribute they are born with. Race does not have any moral implications that can shed light on the character of a particular person. The way in which affirmative action is used today does not follow this sentiment as the race seems to have morphed into a meritorious characteristic. In the multitude of court cases concerning the issue the court has conceded that schools are allowed to give more weight to race as long as they consider others. If we take this to the extreme, schools could devise an admissions program to mostly consider race and brush over other factors. If we continue to make race such a crucial part of the admissions process it will become increasingly harder to cut those ties. In Grutter Justice O’Connor urged the point that affirmative action would have to have a logical endpoint. If the court and society continue to allow it to progress at the current rate affirmative action may become permanent. The court can simply continue to loosen the constraints of strict scrutiny to allow it to come to

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