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The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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As millions of students across the nation graduate high school, the majority choose to continue down the path of education and apply for college. Driven to get into the college of their choice, students meticulously compose their application to show off their greatest achievements and strengths as a person, hoping that their accomplishments edge out others applying. However, little do students know that not only do their achievements and strengths matter when it comes to admissions, but many states look at race when deciding who gets in and who doesn’t, an uncontrollable factor of people's lives which may dictate their futures. This component of college admissions is known as affirmative action.
Established in 1960 as an outcome of the Civil …show more content…

Many who believe that affirmative action helps the education system look at it as an ethical way to incorporate minorities that have faced hardships in society into the educational system so to repay them for the prejudice they faced in the past as well as the prejudice they still may face in today’s world (NCSL, 2014). Known as compensatory justice, it states “that people who have been treated unjustly ought to be compensated” (Schulman, 2015). Many supporters of affirmative action follow this logic. In fact, a study conducted in 2009 by Diedre M. Bowen, professor at Seattle University School of Law, verified this line of reasoning. His results of a poll comparing universities who used affirmative action and those who did not linked higher levels of hostility at universities that have banned affirmative action compared to states that allow it (Sherpa, 2011), proving that affirmative action reduces the amount of prejudice people face. Since the idea that race should not be a factor when being judged has such a big presence in society today, as exemplified by the revolving idea that society should be “colorblind” (Sherpa, 2011), supporters base their ethics off of this idea, making affirmative action an applaudable implementation by allowing targeted groups to be indemnified in a way that enhances their

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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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