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Affirmative action programs are a thorny issue, but ultimately it helps both individuals and the university as a whole.
While moderate uses of affirmative action in public universities that do not involve concrete quotas or points for admission were upheld in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger, the topic remains ever controversial.
But, no court decision will ever determine whether affirmative action is actually good policy. That question must be settled through enlightened discussion and empathy for the plight of others.
At the heart of affirmative action are two distinct but related goals: to increase diversity at universities and give the historically underprivileged a chance at future success. While the goal of increasing diversity among the student population is rarely a bone of contention, the goal of countering the effects of past discrimination is more controversial.
Some liken affirmative action to reverse discrimination, others, to preferential treatment. However, people always misrepresent the practice.
Under the rules set by Grutter, one’s race or nationality — among other things — can only be a partial factor in the public university admissions process. Yet critics often make it appear as if colleges look at one’s race and immediately decide whether or not to admit a student — that is unconstitutional.
Regardless, affirmative action is an appropriate way of combating centuries of discrimination against minorities. Often, these groups face socioeconomic challenges simply not experienced by most whites.
I would be more impressed with a minority high school graduate receiving a 3.5 GPA than a white student with a 3.7 GPA, not because minorities are in any way less capable than whites, but because that minority student indubitably went through more challenges to receive that 3.5.
As any student of statistics can tell you, there is a chance for anything to happen, such as the possibility for anyone to succeed. But it is not about possibility; it is about reality.
Underrepresented minorities are termed that because people have realized the makeup of the total university population does not reflect the ratio of minorities in the overall population.
No matter that blacks were held as slaves for centuries, no matter that the University of Texas, which is involved in an affirmative action case in the Supreme Court, was segregated for the first 70 years of its existence. What matters is a problem still exists of underrepresentation of minorities in colleges. And that problem is best solved through affirmative action.
We as a society must face the fact that discrimination still exists, from the woman whose guidance counselor tells her to study biology rather than engineering to the black student who is told to attend a two-year community college rather than the prestigious state university.
Minorities are as talented as anyone else, but their talent must be nurtured and cultivated. Affirmative action in universities assures these underrepresented groups have that chance to realize their potential.
On a different note, one thing I have never seen talked about in the affirmative action discussion is the effect of the personal essay on college admissions.
Sure, it may not be as important as the GPA credentials of certain applicants, but we are often told by admissions counselors that the personal essay can separate “great” candidates from “good” candidates.
So, before you complain — as Abigail Fisher did in the UT Supreme Court case — that someone with grades lower than yours was admitted instead of you, acknowledge the very real possibility that that person might have written a better personal essay than yours.
A version of this article appeared in the Nov 13 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Justifying racial preferences as needed to help the disadvantaged won't work for two reasons. First, the Supreme Court has rejected that rationale. Second, there is no reason to use race as a proxy for disadvantage, when there are plenty of disadvantaged whites and Asians and plenty of non-disadvantaged blacks and Latinos.
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UT needs to lose that case. Being from Texas, I grew up wanting to go to UT, but as I got closer and closer to applying for colleges, I decided it wasn't worth the application fee to apply to UT because I knew I wouldn't get in. If you are in the top 10% of your class in Texas, you get automatic acceptance to any public university in the state.
I was not in the top 10%, even though I had a 4.0 GPA; I was only in the top 40%. This alone all but assured me I wouldn't get in. After they are done admitting the top 10% students, the rest (in general) usually goes to minorities or disadvantaged students. So even though I had a 4.0, because I am upper middle class and white, UT would most likely take a minority student who has a 3.8 over me. And I assume I am not the only one who this happens to every year.
I guess UT and any other school that follows affirmative action (I'm looking at you, VT) would rather have their academic prestige of their freshman class be a little lower than it could be so they can have a higher minority and disadvantaged student population. If that doesn't scream "progressive university" then I don't know what does.
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Unless your school's grading scale is out of a 6.67, then there is something wrong with your school's grading scale if you're in the top 40% and you have a 4.0. These schools give students false hope and incomprehensible grading by adding in bonus points and all this other crap. 40% means 40% so on a 4.0 scale, the top 40% ranges from 2.4-4.0. All these colleges are sadly encouraging this grade inflation behavoir from high schools because of high school and college ranking systems. It's quite ridiculous and unfortunate for students because the schools are only doing this for money and you're still the ones getting screwed with a false sense of superiority by getting a 4.0/4.0 when you're in the top 40%.
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Why should whites feel guilty for wanting exclusive white societies?
Why should race mixing be seen as moral and racial exclusivity be seen as a hate crime?
Why do the schools and the mainstream media teach whites especially, to feel this way?
A lot of people who run the media sure like the company of white people, even though they bring up horror stories of the KKK and the Nazi's with a telling frequency.
If whites are as bad as the worst excesses of the KKK and Nazi Germany, you should be running in terror from their very presence. But you know better.
The white race is the only race that celebrates its own destruction. They even cheer it on and attack other whites who want to preserve the race.
If they wern't born wishing for their own destruction, who taught them to feel that way?
Follow the money and you will find the answer.
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Relevant article in “The Atlantic”. http://bit.ly/R9Ibsk
Article basically says affirmative action promotes academic “mismatch”. An example would be when a student is accepted to a high ranking university due to _non_academic_ factors (race) & ends up over his head, i.e. should not be there because it is not a good fit academically. The author talks about a ban on affirmative action at UCLA took effect in 1998 & that minority admissions to UCLA dropped off significantly in subsequent years. However, the article's take-away point was “The total number of black and Hispanic students receiving bachelor's degrees were the same for the five classes after Prop 209 as for the five classes before”, and minority drop-out rates were lower. In other words, the same appropriately-qualified minority students were accepted and subsequently graduated independent of any race related affirmative action.
Let’s all agree that The Atlantic leans right, and if you read the article you can see some of that throughout the writing. Also, this is merely ONE college, i.e. a small sample-set. However, his hypothesis/conclusion rings true to me. Hard working, smart people capable of graduating from the college are hard working and smart BEFORE they enter the college, thus gaining admission on their own merit. You don’t have to go to college to get the opportunity to work hard and show intelligence. I would be interested to see if this was true on a larger, more representative scale.
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ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
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Or it could just mean that 40% of my class in high school had at least a 4.0.
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Because your high school was too easy. Grade inflation obviously exists at your school
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No. If 40% have a 4/4 then there are multiple things wrong. First your teachers are not preparing you for a better future because you aren't being challenged. Second they're not grading appropriately. An average student should receive a C. If 40% of the above average students receive an A then teachers are not grading you relatively to your peers. If you're not ranked relative to your peers how can colleges differentiate your competency with other students' competences and therefore admit the brightest students instead of using metrics like race for admission? The brightest students should be going to college not some arbitrary mix of races.
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Quesada's comments are about as 'racist' as they can possibly be, though i hate even using that abused term. The statement that a 'minority' indubitably faced more challenges than a white student is repulsive on its face. Every student should be treated as an individual not a member of a 'group'. Plenty of whites overcome horrible family backgrounds, just as many minorities come from privileged backgrounds, so what? At one time I could buy the notion of affirmative action for African-Americans due to the legacy of slavery. For Hispanics and any others came here voluntarily it is a joke. Do you think Mexico has affirmative action for Anglos? It would be laughable were it not so pernicious.
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>>but because that minority student indubitably went through more challenges to receive that 3.5.
yawwnnn. This is literally the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. I want you to sit and think on this quote and once you realize how close minded it is. Take the article down because your understanding of race in America is severely misrepresented.
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