Affirmative action in education has been at large for approximately 5 decades. Affirmative action in education is the means of ensuring that minorities are not discriminated against within the realm of educational institutions. I am interested in affirmative action because of how prevalent it is in my life, as I attend a competitive institution for both admission and scholarships. I want to better understand the parameters of affirmative action in education and how it affects education and schools. Many feel that affirmative action is necessary to prevent discrimination and to ensure that minorities have the same educational opportunities as the majority. Others, however, feel that affirmative action, though at one time may have been beneficial, is no longer needed in a society where race and ethnicity are regarded less in discriminatory terms. With the basic knowledge I have of affirmative action, I believe this action to be out of date, turning into reverse discrimination. In my opinion, affirmative action in education takes opportunities away from those who may be more qualified than others, simply because of race or sex. Affirmative action in itself has become discriminatory towards majorities in race and gender. However, I aim to learn more about the topic to develop a better understanding of how affirmative action in education does and will continue to affect society. In doing so, I will attempt to learn the current standards of educational affirmative action and determine how that affects multiple groups of people, for both advantages and disadvantages. Within my blog, I hope to argue my point through the use of evidence and logical claims, all the while teaching myself and others about affirmative action in education. In simpler terms, I aim to investigate the good, bad, and ugly of affirmative action in the U.S. educational system.
I think this is a very interesting topic for many reasons but mainly because it is extremely controversial and it affects our lives as students so directly. I agree with your stance on the argument completely, while affirmative action may have been necessary at one point in American history, I believe that time is long gone. To me it is racist and sexist to make things, such as getting into a certain college, easier on a certain race or gender. If some don’t have to work as hard to get into a certain college it could lead to a false belief that life in general is easier on them; also it would take that acceptance spot away from a person who has worked hard and stayed up many long nights studying. Affirmative Action was created as a way to assimilate people who had been subjugated in the majority of society, but subjugation hasn’t existed in America since my mother was born. The President of the United States is a minority; what more proof do we need that Affirmative Action is no longer needed? Minorities, such as Martin Luther King, fought for equality and ended up getting more than that. In general Affirmative Action is almost reverse discrimination; minorities went from below average rights to having more rights than the majority. Everyone has complete equality now, so why do we not by law?
ReplyDeleteThis introduction post has caught my attention. I will be very interested to see how your stance on Affirmative Action develops as you continue your research. It has been a very controversial issue since it's creation, and it seems that more and more people are beginning to view it as "reverse discrimination" as well. I like how you state your initial opinion and then say that you are going to learn more about it to gain a better understanding. This shows a lot of maturity and I hope that in reading your blog we will all learn more about Affirmative Action.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Affirmative Action is very much needed in American society because it promotes diversity and gives opportunity to minorities that need it. Although you didn't allude to this in anyway, I feel many people have the misconception that Affirmative Action allows for mediocre minorities to gain leverage over qualified Whites. I KNOW for a fact this is not how the system works. The minorities that benefit from Affirmative Action have to be reasonably qualified as well. However, I can’t help but feel sorry for and understand the gripes of the Whites rejected due to an Affirmative Action acceptance. This is one problem presented with the policy, but who knows the best way to go about correcting it?
I would have to agree with some of the opinions of the comments above. I believe that affirmative action, just like every other situation or idea, has its pros and its cons. However, while bad ideas usually have cons that outweigh the pros, I believe affirmative action's pros outweigh the cons. While it does in many cases provide for reverse racism, it also opens up many different opportunities for people who might not have been given those opportunities otherwise. My opinions aside, I am very interested in following and reading your blog posts in the future. This subject is one that is extremely applicable to almost everyone and should be especially important to college students like myself.
ReplyDeleteLike I said before, I am interested to read and learn more about affirmative action. I think you are going in a very positive and good direction, and like you have considered both sides in this post, I hope you will do the same in future posts. GREAT JOB!!
My view on affirmative action in general varies. While many believe it is reverse discrimination, I believe it is needed especially in today’s society. Racism and discrimination definitely exists today. As for reverse discrimination, there are still innumerable cases of minorities in this country that more qualified for certain jobs but many aren’t hired because of their background or ethnicity. I personally know someone who is currently going through this situation now. Just because a person is a minority and gets a higher position doesn’t mean they aren’t qualified. One thing that I did like about your post though is that you mention affirmative action not only applies to minorities in color, but also towards women too. But with ending affirmative action, how are we still going to fix the problem of discrimination?
ReplyDeleteAs for it in education and taking away educational opportunities for those who are more qualified, what exactly makes a person “more qualified”? Do you believe that person A- who scored in the 700’s in each section of the SATs and graduated from top of his class from a private school is more qualified than person B- who scored in the 600s of each section and graduated in the top 10% of class at an inner city public school? To add, I know minorities that had well over 4.0s, were president of clubs such as the Student Class Council or National Honor Society, and had high SATs scores, but they were rejected from good schools. Anyway, I am looking forward to reading your blog.
Let me begin by saying that your post seems very well thought out. In response to your claim that racism and discrimination exists today, I agree. It would certainly be ignorant to say that it does not. However, I think little discrimination exists in university admittances. Affirmative action has caused colleges to value diversity, a value that will not cease when the policy ends. The discrimination that exists in society stems from cultural mindset. No policy or law is going to change this mindset. Affirmative action can not change the minds of those who have lived with the foundations of discrimination. To your question of qualifications, I will say that it is not up to me to decide the qualifications of admittance to varying schools. However, universities do in fact have certain standards and account for the various types of schools and education received. My point in using the term qualifications is assuming that a university regards race over standards after reviewing their criteria of academics and extra curricular. Also, I want to clarify that i was in no way saying that some minorities are not qualified. Certainly many minority students exceed majority students in their accomplishments. I was simply saying that sometimes they do not and are admitted anyway.
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