Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action Should Be Discontinued For the most part, high school students have a thirst for higher education. Nowadays, teenagers spend a massive amount of time with their heads in the books to achieve the most and best that they possibly can academically. Even with exceptionally good grades, getting into a good college may not be as easy as it seems, especially when race comes into play. Affirmative action has been used in college admissions for a while. When deciding which students to admit into a university, race and color are taken into consideration giving minorities a chance for a shot at the goal. As Carl Cohen, philosophy professor at the University of Michigan, says, “when preference is given flatly by skin color or by national origin, the inevitable result is the award of advantages to some who deserve

Instead of solely considering race as a factor, it is only fair that a family’s income is looked at as well. On that note, affirmative action is unfair and should be terminated. Affirmative action in university admissions was introduced in the late 1960s as an effort to jump-start racial integration and foster equal opportunity. The idea of this came across as a positive action, but at one point along the way it took a wrong turn. Many people started to second-guess whether or not affirmative action is for the better. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said, “I thought that the whole purpose of affirmative action was to help students who come from underprivileged backgrounds” (Kahlenberg). Although the motives of affirmative action are positive, the conduct is wrong and intolerable. Cohen says that the fundamental principle is “giving preference by race, by skin color, is wrong, unjust; when done by an agency of the state it is unlawful, a violation of federal statutes and of our Constitution” (Cohen). It is an unfair practice not only to