Analyzing the issues of affirmative action, I have found that the school of thought for the various sides of debate is the U.S. Constitution and what it means for its citizens. Both sides argue that affirmative action is either protected or not protected under the law. I have found that if the debate over affirmative action is not resolved, there will be implications that greatly affect the academic community of the future. If affirmative action is not stopped by policy, then there will continued increase in minority student’s acceptance into higher education, taking the place of qualified whites, and therefore lessening the ability of our academic society to grow to its potential. In other words, if whites are continued to be discriminated against then the academic world will not hold all of its higher thinkers and problem solvers. Some argue (link 42) that the end of affirmative action will end diversity in colleges, but what is diversity compared to high academic standards? If the U.S. wants to be competitive in academia and new technology, we must allow for qualifications to out shine race, otherwise the country will continue to fall behind competitors. With a continuation of affirmative action whites will continue (link40) to receive the blunt end of government assistance, keeping low income white families, low income. Polls have shown (link 41) that many Americans are currently opposed to affirmative action, a clear indicator that if affirmative action continues there will be continued debate and uproar over affirmative action policies. Affirmative action must end, upholding the constitution, or equality will not exist for all citizens.
I agree that affirmative action must come to an end. It has served its purpose and should no longer be relevant, at least not in the academic world. Minorities can undoubtedly compete with white scholars in the academic realm without affirmative action. Universities no longer discriminate based on race, and they wouldn't even without affirmative action. Minorities have all of the rights and opportunities that the average white person has, so it's obvious that active, purposeful admission of minority students is no longer fair or needed. After so many years of fighting for equality, it seems that the table has turned in this sense.
ReplyDeletehttp://academic.udayton.edu/race/04needs/s98wood-p.htm
ReplyDeleteI will have to slightly disagree with both of you. Ideally, it would be great if our education system no longer required affirmative action. However, it is still needed to insure that ethnic, religious, or sexual discrimination does not enter the admissions process. Here's an example:
Even though overt racism is on a decline in this day and age (unfortunately, the same thing can not be said about sexism and religious discrimination), there is such a thing called "unconscious discrimination." This kind of discrimination is conditioned and embedded into our minds by our family, our surroundings, and society in general. Examples of this are given in the link that I provided above. If higher level education admissions begin to adopt subjective individual processes without meeting a quota, then such biases might seep into the choices they make for admissions. Do you honestly think that everyone working for admissions to a university will remain completely unbiased in their choices? Looking around a the evidence that lays before us, such as racial geographic concentration, sexism in the business world, and religious discrimination in politics, it is quite clear that our society is not ready for such a leap. A good question might be: will we ever be ready?
I really do see both sides to this argument but I must admit that I lean more towards ending affirmative action. I’m hesitant with this position because it seems really unfair that I am “more intelligent” on paper than another student, solely because of the wonderful opportunities that have been presented to me since childhood. I guess this just proves that life isn’t fair. Kellen Kennedy raises a very important point that if universities are accepting less qualified students based on their ethnicity or gender then America isn’t putting forth the absolute strongest group of students to participate in the academic world. I have a quirky solution that may not be realistic but if the goal of universities is to admit the most apt and qualified students then why not have people apply with a number, and not include name or any other background information. This would eliminate bias completely and basically solve the problem of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, or background. Do you think this would work?
ReplyDeleteSparky,
ReplyDeleteI would like to commend you on taking the initiative to look up information regarding your stance on the issue. I will even go as far as agreeing with you that unconscious racism does in fact exist. However, in regards to my topic, specifically in higher education, unconscious racism would have slim chances of occurring or having affects on admission.
I am a believer of practices that do not regard race, as in race would not even be designated on the application. Therefore, race could not be considered and unconscious racism would not occur.
Though I will look at it from the idea that the application was still the same, just affirmative action was not used. In this case, yes the race would be clear. However unconsicous racism would likely not occur because the admission officers are highly educated and respected members of the staff,therefore I'd like to think racism is not an issue for educated and mature adults who are deciding the fate of young people. But what if one person was racist like you say? Well in this case, admissions typically occurs through a panel. There are several admission officers who review an application. So this would mean that all the officers would have to be racist. If this was the case, would this even be an accredited school?
Lacey,
I think your idea of a number system for the application process makes clear sense. Most applications are submitted online (or will be within a few years), therefore it would be easy to put in place a system where the computer assigns each applicant a number. This would prevent any "name racism" or racial preference. This would eliminate any chance of bias.