Affirmative Action
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/
Affirmative action is an issue that directly affects me as a
college applicant. I may be refused entry to a college because another less
qualified applicant who happens to be a minority fills my slot. This seems to
me horribly unfair, and I disagree with any favoritism at all in terms of
college, jobs, and anything else applicable.
I
understand that minorities in the US are often underrepresented in the higher
echelons of society and education; however, I do not believe that the way to
fix this is by discriminating against people who are better qualified and will
perform better in the positions that are in question. In the Supreme Court Case
Regents of the University
of California v. Bakke (1973), the ruling
overturned the rejection of Allan Bakke on the basis of his race (white),
setting a precedent against affirmative action. Justice Powell, who cast the
deciding vote, wrote that choosing a student based on their race goes against
Title IV of the Civil Rights Act, which promises that no person will be
discriminated against on the grounds of race.
However,
more recent Supreme Court decisions have upheld limited affirmative action. Modern
arguments for affirmative action state that as universities are training the
future leadership of the US, students at college should roughly represent the
diversity of the US, because the leadership of the nation should represent the
diversity of the nation. I disagree with this because it seems to me that the
future should not lie with the most ethnically diverse leadership; rather the
most effective leadership. Basically, I think that discrimination based on race
should not exist, and people defending ‘affirmative action’ should call it what
it is; discrimination against people who work harder, score higher, and perform
better on the basis of their skin color and/or gender. This is exactly what rights
activists have been fighting against for generations. Is discrimination really
different just because it is aimed at white males instead of minorities and
women? I think not.
