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Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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Nevertheless, while naysayers focus on the limited drawbacks of affirmative action, they fail to recognize the positive impacts this policy is facilitating. Affirmative action allows admissions officers to consider a student’s application in context with their background and upbringing. Stanford alumni Ben Kaufman agree that “there is absolutely no ‘reverse discrimination’ present when a child of Mexican immigrants with a 3.5 GPA who had to work two jobs through high school is offered admission over an incredibly comfortable kid like us with a 3.9; there's only recognition of vast differences in background and advantage.” Undoubtedly, it is even impractical to compare two applicants that hail from the same state. An African American student …show more content…

The socioeconomic ladder is difficult to climb, especially starting from all the way at the bottom. African Americans and Hispanics make up the majority of the bottom rung on this ladder, and while “other groups experience hardship and discrimination, few non-black and Latino young people suffer handicaps of similar intensity” (Strauss). To move up the ladder, attaining an education is an essential element. However, underrepresented minorities would never get access to the leading universities without the assistance of affirmative action. It is misguided for circumstances that are out of a student’s control to dictate their future. While minority students may be slightly less impressive in comparison to their Asian American competitors who devote their entire life into building the perfect resumé, they still deserve a chance to gain acceptance into prestigious colleges. Sonia Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican first-generation college student, has personally experienced the benefits of affirmative action. Growing up in the public housing project of southern Bronx presented Sotomayor a number of challenges, and during the application process, applying to the Ivy League schools seemed like a lost cause to her. Still, she hopefully applied Princeton University under affirmative action and got accepted. Graduating with distinguished honors catapulted her to Yale Law school, and eventually led to her being the first United States justice in the Supreme Court. When asked about her achievements Sotomayor modestly claims that, “I am an ordinary person ... blessed with extraordinary opportunities like the affirmative action policy which has allowed me to pursue my dreams” (qtd. in Keck). Without the help of affirmative action to initiate her journey, Sotomayor would never be in the position she is in today. This further enforces that affirmative action is a

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We have seen in the past four decades race-based affirmative action programs that have arisen and fitfully developed through judicial challenges. As in most case, the best of intentions do not always lead to positive outcomes. Nothing could be more apt in describing the perilous position we have bestowed upon millions of minority students who have been admitted to higher learning institutions under the auspices of diversity. As illustrated by the standardized test and GPA numbers in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the students admitted to the medical school of UC-Davis under their affirmative action policy were extraordinarily less qualified when compared to the student body as a whole. This not only unfairly displaced white and Asian students who would have otherwise been admitted to those spot on merit but also places those underperforming students in an environment in which they are destined to fail.

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Affirmative action means advancing gradually to eliminate discrimination, to prevent its reversion, and to offer new opportunities that before were repulsed to women and minorities. While recent studies have demonstrate that reverse discrimination is sporadic, sometimes employers use illegal preferences or quotas, usually an unwillingness to prepare an appropriate affirmative action plan or out of ignorance. Former President Johnson confessed “We seek…not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and a result.” Griggs v. Duke Power Company case is relevant for this argument. The plaintiff in Griggs’s case argued that the high school diploma and testing requirements discriminated against African-Americans and thus violated Title VII.

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Affirmative action policies promote diversity in public spaces, which will prepare students for future after graduation. This is essential because the world has become rapidly diverse, especially in the United States. Furthermore, affirmative action provides an environment for minority students in which they can have more chances to overcome their handicaps and to compete equally. From many aspects, minorities still have many obstacles to excel in this society, especially due to their socioeconomic status. Proponents of affirmative action programs assert that non-minority students blame their failure on this policy.

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In his article “Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Is It Necessary?” , Rodney Reed debates the necessity of affirmative action as a critical measure in the fight against discrimination in higher education. In order to stress this conviction, he does not eschew the usage of strongly biased diction and argument. Firstly, on page 333 Reed states that “in [his] view, affirmative action is a series of positive steps” and that “[his] concern is with Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans”, where he does not conceal that this is his perspective and not necessarily the truth.

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On the Paradox of Affirmative Action Inequality has pervaded American society throughout history, and it continues to invade the lives of young Americans in the form of affirmative action. Affirmative action, a process in which colleges favor minorities and other disadvantaged groups, fails to serve its intended purposes: to compensate for historical discrimination. Worse, it creates aptly named reverse racism, wherein the majority has a disadvantage. Affirmative action also has a goal of creating diversity, but diversity includes more than race; moreover, the importance of equality vastly dwarfs the importance of diversity, though the two are closely entangled. Despite benevolent intentions, the institution of affirmative action policies

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“Affirmative Action may not be a perfect system, but there should be no doubt that it has endangered many successes. It has opened the doors of America’s most elite educational institutions to minority students, granting them unprecedented opportunities” (Ogletree 12). Thanks to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson a policy that prohibits employment and education discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex is offered today to those who suffer from said discriminations (A Brief History). Affirmative action has opened abundant openings for minorities, allowing the cycle of going to college to be passed down generations and provided job opportunities that otherwise would not be considered by most. Affirmative

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An outrage among society today; high school students are not being admitted to their dream colleges based on ethnic background. Adolescents should not be burdened by the thought that they won’t get into the college they deserve to attend just based on their skin color. Affirmative Action is the cause of this appalling injustice in the college admissions process among big universities. There have been several cases where people have fought for their right to be admitted solely based on their qualifications. Universities’ use of Affirmative Action, and racial quotas in their admissions process should be exposed and terminated.

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Based on these reasons, Sacks and Thiel believe that instead of accomplishing its purpose of putting an end to discrimination, affirmative action has instead promoted discrimination and unequal rights to certain students. In order to solve the issues of affirmative action, the authors suggest that the “sole criterion” for admissions should revolve around personal “achievements” which race can not be categorized into since they describe it as a personal “trait.” By focusing solely on merit, colleges would be evaluating students based on aspects that are considered to be non­discriminative.

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These students have the potential to succeed, but quickly become discouraged in the demanding programs (Sander 6). Use of an affirmative action program “tantalizes unprepared students with the promise of a [...] degree and all of the opportunities that it offers,” (Justice Powell qtd. in Chingos par. 3). This tendency of such a program to actually hurt those it attempts to help, means that the program should not be used. When California voters realized this, they passed Proposition 209.

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With knowledge about America’s extensive history of racial tensions, discrimination, and segregation, however, this appears to be an appropriate method of academic assistance and equality in regards to college admissions. The nationwide affirmative action program based on race appears to be a fair and reliable method of college admittance; however, there remain slight discrepancies, like a potential for reverse discrimination, which cannot be ignored. Proponents on all sides of the academic spectrum agree that using a different criteria for college admissions, socioeconomic status, could prove to be the better option in keeping with the promotion of diversity while establishing reasonable boundaries for the number of admitted students (“Socioeconomic Status” 79). Similarly to how Affirmative Action in college admissions currently gives advantage to students of ethnic minority, affirmative action will begin to give advantage to students who live in families of low socioeconomic status. Additionally, this new criteria will serve the core values of promoting diversity, equal opportunity, fairness, and the elimination of discrimination in college admissions.

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1241 Words | 5 Pages

Many supporters of race-conscious admissions argue that without considering race as a factor, many groups of underrepresented minorities won’t have the chance to continue onto higher education because of their lack of resources, as compared to the wealthy and privileged white applicants. However, this is based on stereotypes. In “The Atlantic” article, “The Affirmative Action That Colleges Really Need”, the author states, “The current framework of race-based preferences…disproportionately helps upper-middle-class students of color, and pits working-class people of different races against one another…Research by the economist Raj Chetty shows that…Seventy-one percent of Black, Latino, and Native American students at Harvard come from college-educated homes with incomes above the national median; such students are in roughly the most advantaged fifth of families of their own race,” (Kahlenberg). What this shows is that in reality, there are families that come from underrepresented backgrounds who are still just as privileged because of their social class. Stereotypes create flaws in the system by giving minority students the boost they do not need instead of giving it to the lower class students that actually do, which includes minorities and the majorities alike.

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The Fall of the Glorious Ideas of Self Reliance The Juche ideology was once a unique brand of Marxist-Leninism created by the true leader of Korea: Kim il Sung. Recently, however, the tyrannic rule of Kim il’s successors adulterated the purity of the Juche thought. This revision of the Juche ideals has shifted the public image of Juche, vilifying it and shadowing the history of this great form of societal expression.

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This is a comparison of the current experiences of Asians with the past experiences of Jews that is meant to paint the true nature of affirmative action as a mistake. It is well-acknowledged that; Asian students spend much more effort studying compared to other ethnic groups. Therefore, even though Asians constituted less than 10 percent of the state’s population, the admission rate for Asian Americans grows dramatically each year before the enforcement of affirmative action. In 1983, the proportion of Asian students has attained 34 percent of the entire freshman class in UC Irvine.

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509 Words | 3 Pages

America is a country that is unlike any other. The United States of America boasts an impressive multicultural society, one with a diverse demographic of people, tongues, and races, however, beneath the surface of this postmodern convivial utopia, lies a dark history of oppression and legalized abuse of people; simply based off race. Although our beautiful country no longer upholds laws and policies that hinder one due to the color of their skin or their race, the long-term effects, continue to linger in the social fabric of the United States. Because I am not blind to the longstanding effects of racial segregation and oppression, I firmly believe in, and support, Affirmative Action--which in recent time, has been topic of much controversy and debate.

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Subsequently, already-overrepresented races such as whites would be represented in an even more disproportionate manner. This is not ideal because as in today’s modern world, all races are equal, but this disproportionality undermines that characteristic. Affirmative action helps colleges and universities work towards true diversity, which would be equal representation of all racial groups. However, while that would be a challenging task to accomplish in a short period of time, affirmative action helps jumpstart the journey by providing a means to slowly introduce more diversity on college campuses. Affirmative action is not an end-all solution, but it helps improve the lack of diversity present in colleges and universities today, an issue that needs to be tackled to fulfill the idea that all racial groups should be equal, including in education.

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