Affirmative action is one of the more complicated issues in relation to college acceptances, as it was intended to remove the injustice of racial discrimination, by assisting racial groups who historically faced discrimination due to their skin color. Historically, some college campuses preferred white candidates to black candidates, leading to a very narrow minded, one dimensional viewpoint on many topics, especially controversial topics such as race. By ensuring diversity, forming echo chamber-like environments in workplaces or college campuses. Due to this, factors such as race, gender, and background are now factors used in determining a candidate’s worth.
Though entirely well intentioned, assisting one side came with debilitating another.
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By establishing quotas or limits to how many people per racial group can be accepted into an establishment or university, it indirectly limits the amount of well qualified people that can be accepted, regardless of race. Along with this, expectations for the more “privileged” races were raised. In order to consider someone of Asian descent equal to someone of Hispanic descent, the Asian candidate must have a substantially higher score on the SAT, disproving the idea that affirmative action assists in working towards showcasing equal ability between races. Though affirmative action policies claim to work against stereotypes, it does the exact opposite as the action of implying that all Asians come from the same background, or all African Americans come from the same background is stereotyping within itself. Likewise, the groups being covered by affirmative action fail to recognize Asians as minorities, due to the unfortunate “model minority” stereotype being put on them. Quotas being put on Asians in turn assisted Caucasians, “the largest group competing with Chinese-Americans” (Stacy J. Lee), effectively putting another minority group at a disadvantage instead of assisting them. Although many advocates believe affirmative action is entirely benign in its endeavors, it is more detrimental in terms of establishing a system based off of merit, acting in a way that proves we are