In particular, when it comes to affirmative action, there are two main trains of thought. Firstly, many people believe that since certain minority groups were oppressed for an extended period of time in our nation's history, then it is only right to have an aid which increases the availability of higher education to these groups. This thought process of lowering admission standards for certain minority populations has become known as "affirmative action," and it has caused a lot of discourse in politics and civic interactions of late.
On the other hand, a large portion of citizens view affirmative action as "reverse discrimination" against the majority of higher education applicants. Behind the anti-affirmative action group lies a set of opinions that are formed by comparatively higher expectations and lower financial aid. As these two sides of the argument begin to clash, a middle-of-the-road idea begins to form. Ideally, over time, all minorities will have achieved the same level of opportunity experienced by the rest of Americans. At this point in time, will affirmative action no longer need to exist? And if this theory is true, when does that time in the future occur, and how will we be ready for it?
Recently, Politico released an article detailing the fact that the Supreme Court is still upholding the right for schools to utilize affirmative action when selecting future students. However, the most recent vote upholding this idea was only decided by a narrow margin of a 4-3 decision. This close vote not only showcases a movement away from affirmative action practices of the past, but also brings into the public eye the question of how much longer it should exist.
Everyone reacts to the idea of affirmative action differently, and several factors can play a role in influences someone's opinion on the matter. A person's race, own life experiences, and overall political leanings can affect how they feel about increasing the ratio of minority students at universities and colleges. According to The New York Times, affirmative action is believed by many to not be the only solution to a society that is still dealing with the whiplash of segregation laws and slavery in the nation's history. In the article, Lee Bollinger details his own opinion that affirmative action should, however, remain intact in addition to increasing court and societal influence for change. Race relations have changed slowly over time, and Bollinger indicates that removing affirmative action now would be premature.
Regardless of how each individual feels about affirmative action, it is generally agreed upon that race relations have improved over the last several decades, but that they are still not perfect. How far someone believes race relations are from perfect is a factor in concluding when mechanisms like higher education should stop considering race. And finally, at what point does this tool become racist in its own, backwards way?
After you have had time to think about how you feel about this civic issue, try to answer the following questions to yourself. Do you think race relations are improving with the use of affirmative action? What additional steps or tools would you add to someday achieve a world in which higher education would not need to consider race as a factor for the acceptance rate? Will the use of affirmative action ever become unnecessary or even harmful for other portions of the population?
With these thoughts in mind, you have already made the first step in discovering your stance on this civic issue. Over the next several blogs, I plan to investigate the history and changing controversies surrounding race and education; you can follow along and perhaps witness your own opinions mature and change.
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Image provided by Nottingham Trent University
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I believe that Affirmative Action is a great topic to discuss, because like you mentioned there are different points of views to this controversial issue. As a minority student in a predominantly white Institute, I see affirmative action as a way to provide equity and equality for minority students around the world. I went to an underfunded PUBLIC high school which barely had textbooks, did that affect my ability to learn? Yes, because while schools in the suburbs had laptops and textbooks, I did not. There were many instances where my teachers had to ask us to buy the required reading books because the school did not have enough money to provide the books. Another point I would like to make is that the fact that a lot of what schools look at are SAT scores, and in my opinion, the SAT does not measure intelligence, but that is another conversation. A lot of more affluent students can afford expensive SAT prep, me on the other hand, all I had were two books and a vocabulary set. It was not because I could not afford it, but because I had other priorities such as saving up for college, while maybe students who come from more affluent families do not have to worry about such. Yes, I do realize that this is all conjecture because not everyone who lives in the suburbs is “rich, ” but you do have to realize that students in the “inner city” struggle way more than the students who go to school in the suburbs.
ReplyDeleteAnother point I wanted to make is debunking the idea that minority students are less qualified to attend the same institution as a white student. If I weren’t qualified, I don’t think I would have a full scholarship to a prestigious university. We have to view affirmative action not only in the college admissions process but at a societal level such as trying to explain why a student who goes to a public School in the middle of Philadelphia has lower SAT scores than a student that goes to a suburban school. Not only because they go to better schools, but their socioeconomic status can be much better than that of a student who lives in the city for example. There has to be an understanding that historically minority students get the short end of the stick, and affirmative action, as I mentioned before is providing equity and equality for underrepresented students. Penn State is a predominantly white Institute, that is a problem because although many schools are claiming to be "diverse" there is still a long way to go and affirmative action is the step in the right direction. Affirmative action allows individuals of color to have the same opportunities as a white counterpart when they are equally or even more qualified for the same position.
My last point is the belief that reverse racism exist. To be racist, you have to have power and privilege over another race through political, economic and institutional means. Clearly, this isn’t the case especially not now when there is a heterosexual, white male as president. It also has to be established over an extended period and from my knowledge white people have never been discriminated because of their skin color, religion, ethnicity, etc. The ability to claim that reverse racism is an actual concept stems from a place of privilege that only white individuals have.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and share your own personal experience with the topic I chose to write about. Personally, I have a lot less experience on the subject as a whole and that is why I was interested in researching it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would like to thank you for raising several really important points. It is true that affirmative action is an effective way to give the same opportunities to individuals of color that are equally or more qualified for the same position, and I tried to express that through my blog post. I also wanted to point out that I attempted to show both sides of the conversation through my post, and stay away from any of my own opinions.
My only follow up question for you would be this: most people, myself included, recognize affirmative action as a great method to promote equality and increase diversity. At what point though, would it become unnecessary for affirmative action to exist? In other words, when will public universities be able to discern when equality has finally been achieved and begin to look to other means? Or will it be important to keep it around for the foreseeable future? I guess this may deal with larger underlying issues, but I am curious to hear your thoughts about it.
Thanks for the feedback.