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The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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Affirmative Action -- Reform is Necessary
The college application process no longer analyzes students based on their GPA and standardized test scores alone. Colleges conduct a holistic review of a student and consider both life experiences and quantifiable qualifications. Within a holistic review, many American schools consider race in application processes; they hope racial affirmative action will prioritize diversity and the influx of diverse ideas on a college campus. However, these race-based policies have been the subject of numerous controversies and court cases, as people question the ethics behind considering physical appearance in an application process. Due to proposed discrimination, affirmative action is under the spotlight -- with …show more content…

Although this will not happen tomorrow, we need to remove race-based affirmative action from the college application process; race-based affirmative action fuels discrimination on college campuses, harms the learning of minority students, and doesn’t reach the primary source of disparity in college admissions -- socioeconomic status.
Racial affirmative action should have no place in admissions because it fuels discrimination on college campuses. A former first lady, Michelle Obama, experienced negative implications of racial affirmative action firsthand. In her book, "Becoming," Obama discusses how she felt the "shadow of affirmative action" throughout her time at Princeton University. Obama claims she could feel scrutiny from her peers and teachers, as if they were thinking, "I know why you're here." Moreover, affirmative action delegitimizes the hard work minority students put in throughout high school, and causes their peers to view them as unworthy counterparts. Whether or not affirmative action truly benefitted an accepted student doesn’t matter. Students and staff will likely treat minority students if they are simply a result of affirmative action -- which is demorilizing to minority students. …show more content…

For example, before UC schools implemented Prop. 209 in 1998 -- which abolished affirmative action policies -- more than 10% of minority students at UC schools were at risk of failing as opposed to only 4% of white students (“Is it Time for Affirmative Action to End”). Affirmative action places minority students in academic climates where they cannot thrive. Students deserve a post-secondary education environment where they can be successful; affirmative action can strip minority students of the success every student deserves at a collegiate educational level. In a similar vein, affirmative action is detrimental to student learning because it fails to incentivize the most fruitful exchange of individual beliefs and ideas. In his dissenting opinion of the Bakke court case regarding the legitimacy of affirmative action, Lewis Powell explained that the affirmative action process is detrimental to all students at an institution; colleges should select students who will contribute to the most “robust exchange of ideas” to fulfill their primary purpose (“Promoting Racial Diversity in College Admissions”). Rather than focusing on diversity, colleges must create an environment where the largest exchange of diverse ideas can occur. Affirmative action directly defies this idea -- and discriminates against students who have the merit to engage in

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In “Net (Race) Neutral: An Essay on How GPA + (reweighted) SAT - Race = Diversity,” Christine Goodman illustrates the opposing viewpoints in regards to the racial discriminatory efforts by the college institutions to help diversify the incoming freshman class. With this, Goodman provides statistics and opinions of experts on the matter, which includes comparison of such discriminatory acts against other institutions. To begin, she brings up an enlightening, yet controversial court case decision: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2013). This court case demonstrates significance to this topic because it counteracts a previous court case, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which, “upheld diversity as a compelling interest that would justify narrowly

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The U.S. Supreme Court Case Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke was officially decided June 28, 1978. The case addressed the issue of use of affirmative action in university admissions processes. Affirmative action, also referred to as positive discrimination, was a result of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and was intended to ensure equal entry to educational institutions or employment entities to certain groups that “have historically suffered invidious discrimination” (Janda et al., 477). However, sometimes this method causes discrimination of other groups, through establishment of racial quotas. University of California employed the process of affirmative action and instituted racial quotas in its admissions

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”This is what is supposed to be in effect overall public schools and colleges. But discrimination is inevitable, not because of all the racist people out there, but because of the lack of opportunities to be aware of discrimination between races. Although the United States has come a very long way in race equality, there is still vast room for improvement among all

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Affirmative action in his eyes not only discriminated against non-minority, but also gave way for failure due to the lack of proper schooling before post-secondary institutions for minorities. The term minority student means that students were disadvantaged and were underrepresented in America. Richard argues that the people who affirmative action was designed for were not benefiting because affirmative action was not

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Is affirmative action still necessary for guaranteeing equal access to educational opportunities at elite universities and graduate schools? Should admissions decisions be based solely on academic criteria and merit? Key Words: affirmative action, Grutter V. Bollinger, and diversity. Grutter V. Bollinger Research Paper 3 Affirmative Action in Education Affirmative action was formed more than fifty years ago.

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In the article, “The Truth about ‘holistic College Admissions”, Sara Harberson expresses how universities that are not allowed to use racial preferences on college admissions, are still devising strategies to work around the laws to produce the same result. Harberson states how the institutions are using what is called “holistic admissions”, which allows a college to factor in a student's background, race and income. By filtering out the minority groups, they are creating a less-diverse community, preventing students of certain backgrounds from a proper education, and taking away opportunities from students based on their ethnicity. Colleges are using racial segregation in the admission process so that they can have a white-favoring campus

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After the Brown decision, many institutions of higher education began to desegregate, although the process was slow and uneven. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation further strengthened the legal basis for desegregation in higher education. While affirmative action has been a controversial topic, with some arguing that it is reverse discrimination, others argue that it is necessary to address historical inequalities and create a more diverse and inclusive society (History.com,

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Another thing that places students of color at a disadvantage in college admissions is the persisting cultural bias in high-stakes testing. “High-stakes” tests are those that are tied to major consequences, such as admission to college, or even high school graduation. Fair education reform advocates have long been citing an extensive record of standardized testing concerns, many of which relate to racial bias and discrimination. As researcher and author Harold Berlak explains in the journal Rethinking Education: Standardized testing perpetuates institutionalized racism and contributes to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. For instance, the deeply embedded stereotype that African Americans perform poorly on standardized tests

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Throughout the United States, thousands of high school seniors are eagerly awaiting their acceptance letters from colleges and universities. Some of these seniors, however, despite their high grades, will be faced with disappointment as their dreams are broken. Although life is bound to come with failures, these specific failures are often not the student’s own fault. Their rejection letters are caused by the Affirmative Action law that is applied by every University and college. “Affirmative Action policies are those in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American Society” (“Affirmative Action,” par. 1).

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When considering the aspects of Affirmative Action, we must first look at what the intent of the Executive Order was in 1961. Among the racial divide this order’s purpose was to simply give a fair or better chance to minorities than before. The minorities have been long shut out of the workforce and educational systems in the past. President Kennedy’s order aims to end the long drawn out era of discrimination in the work force and education systems (Kurtulus, 2013). Many people against the idea of affirmative action claim it creates “reverse racism”.

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Across the board, equality in America is a heavily debated topic. Whether it is on the subject of job opportunities or police brutality, equality is understood to a utopic idea and that is suppressed by an ingrained social ideology that some people are “superior” to others. The case of education is no different. There are many factors in education that contribute to an overall imbalance in the system and one of the more debated factors would be the implementation of affirmative action in the college application process and the effects of this policy on the students affected by it, both majority or minority students. Affirmative action has had a negative impact on student education, more so on minority students.

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Affirmative action has become obsolete in today’s society. Affirmative action is an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women; also: a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Today’s affirmative action will demoralize the very concepts that the policy was implemented to uphold: those of equality for all people regardless of color and discrimination. This policy supports racial multiplicity at the price of distinction, impartiality and experience; it also follows the line of reverse discrimination and sexual bias against white men (Reyna, Tucker, Korfmacher, & Henry, 2005).

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One of the most debatable aspects is the evidence backing up the harm caused by affirmative action. Many believe that affirmative action does nothing in regards to the success of students and schools and deny the idea of the mismatch effect. “...Proposition 209 led to an improved “fit” between minority students and colleges in the University of California system, which resulted in improved graduation rates.” (brookings.com). People also believe in the undermatch effect, where students go to “... a school that is not demanding enough, and are less likely to graduate as a result.”

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As far as morality and justice are concerned, if a school or business or government declines to practice affirmative action, that’s okay” – says the

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Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973).  Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing

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