Affirmative Action is a term for a set of policies that were put in place to end and correct effects of discrimination. Affirmative Action includes programs implanted by the government or privately, that focus on granting access to employment and education to minority groups.
Affirmative Action in college education looks like universities urging underrepresented groups to apply and offering financial aid to minority students. These initiatives have resulted in doubling, or even tripling, of the amount of minority students at colleges. Statistics show that these programs did achieve the goal of diversifying college campuses. From the National Conference of State Legislatures website, “After California abolished its affirmative action programs in 1998, the minority student admissions at UC Berkeley fell 61 percent, and minority admissions at UCLA fell 36 percent.”
The argument for Affirmative Action is that it is necessary in order to compensate for historical racial oppression.
However, these programs have led to bias against non-minority groups. Princeton University conducted a study found that African American applicants received a “bonus” of 230 points on their SAT scores, Hispanic applicants received a bonus of 185 points, and Asian American applicants were penalized by 50 points. You can read more about the study, and how the study uses these numbers to argue against affirmative action programs. But basically, Asian American students as a collective, have more academic success than African American or Hispanic students, yet are being accepted into colleges at rates disproportionate to this academic success.
this graph suggests that Affirmative Action makes SAT scores virtually meaningless unless coupled with race: https://droveria.com/sunday-rant-1017/
I don’t know about you, but I think that college acceptances should be based on academic performance rather than race. It is not racist to accept more Asian American students, if those Asian American students perform better academically.
Further, a student who is accepted to a university not because they meet academic requirements, but because of affirmative action policy, that student drops out or fails out at a higher rate than students who are accepted due to their merits. Thomas Sowell, current Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, further explains this effect.
Thomas Sowell makes the point that Affirmative Action is not helping minorities in the long term
This process of gaining acceptance into universities regardless of actual merit, is not only a disadvantage to the students who are being passed over despite having met the academic standards, but could also be a detriment to minority students. As long as the narrative (that Affirmative Action forces colleges to admit students based not on just merit) continues, minority students may be stigmatized as faculty and other students question the success of that student to be a result of their own merit, or as a result of a government regulation.
A Supreme Court case in 2013 involving the University of Texas shows some of the complications with Affirmative Action programs. A white student was not admitted to the university, and sued the school. The University said that she did not meet the standards of acceptance, as far as academic standing. However, the students’ case is that the university accepted over 200 students who also did not meet academic standards set by the university admissions board, but met the profile outlined by Affirmative Action programs. So a white student who had the same qualifications as a minority student, was not allowed admission for her race. Where is the justice in that?
The argument is that the racial injustices of America’s history, need to be motivation for current policy. How does punishing a white student, right the wrongs of slavery and Jim Crow, etc.? In traditional law, if I wrong you, then you have the right to sue me and make me pay for the wrongs I have committed. But you do not have the right to make my children, grandchildren, etc. to pay for my wrongs. But Affirmative Action has proved to do just that.
I think it would be better to focus time, energy, and money towards creating equal opportunity across the board, such as setting higher standards for all college students.
If on merit alone, the higher education system is disproportionate to the population, which it would be at this point, then the solution is to better prepare the minority students for higher education. If less minority students score high on the SATs, and therefore less minority students are accepted into universities, then let us spend money on bettering elementary and high schools in predominately minority communities. This would be better for both the higher education system, as competition among students would increase, but would also be better for minority students as they have access to better education.
I don’t understand how any programs that seek to implement equal outcome can be logically followed. The United States is a land of equal opportunity, not equal outcome. Equal outcome can really only be achieved by socialism in my opinion, not democracy or capitalism, and historically, socialism’s equal outcome has been equally poor. With all that said, I think the solution will always be increased competition, rather than being given things from the government on the basis of one’s race.
Hmm, this article really made me think. I definitely agree with your premise that academic achievement and college admission should be granted based on merit, not on skin color; however, I believe affirmative action was chosen not because it is the best solution, but moreso because it requires the least amount of societal overhaul. Statistically, our country’s poorest individuals are black and hispanic, and these individuals are also the most likely to remain impoverished. Affirmative action targets individuals of these ethnic backgrounds in an attempt to rectify this racial component to poverty. The problem with this is that not every individual from these backgrounds is poor, and not every white or asian individual is rich. The system ends up unfairly benefitting wealthy african americans and hispanics, and unfairly targeting poor whites and asians. You proposed that we reform america’s education system to provide low-income communities with better preparation for college; however, america’s education system is notoriously corrupt, based on property taxes, and considered a state issue. In order to reform the education system, there would Need to be a massive infrastructure overhaul, and likely a federal education system, which, as common core showed, doesn’t necessarily work out well. The system is already too full of corrupted officials for it to be changed in any significant way, so until an education revolution comes about, i think affirmative action is the only concrete solution the government will provide us with, even though it isn’t fair or necessarily the most effective system.