For years, affirmative action policies attempted to iterate the idea of racial discrimination by giving minority applicants a leg up in the admissions process. Nowadays, taking action to end racism is the challenge and responsibility of every single person in our society. The admissions process is very fickle, but it must be understood to make light of the situation. Recently, diversity and affirmative action have been a popular topic of conversation causing large debates to emerge: whether or not post-secondary institutions should remove the racial preferences already in place when admitting minorities. Many Americans today believe that affirmative action has led to positive social changes, yet it seems that even more students believe that
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Though proponents of affirmative action argue that the policy was issued to resolve discrimination, it actually only adds to the fire. Obviously riled up by the litigation, Michael Medved, writer of many political articles, commentates on the topic of affirmative action by saying that “[others] assume that disadvantaged minorities, particularly Latinos and blacks, are so profoundly handicapped by history that they can’t possibly compete on a level playing field” (2). This fraudulent assumption holds no truth in today’s society. Affirmative action was designed to end discrimination and unfair treatment of students based on color, when in reality it does the opposite. Instead, it leads to reverse discrimination where affirmative action is hypocritical. For instance, a Caucasian applicant who works harder than someone of another race is more qualified academically, the individual does not get the boost since he is white—something that he has no control of; because of this, academic factors should be of higher importance than race during admissions. Joe Messerli, creator and author of almost all content on the balancedpolitics.org website, complies with this statement, asserting: “there 's no association between skin color and intelligence/discipline/etc. so why do we keep drawing attention to it?” (4). Indeed, the only way to fight racism is to stop pretending that racism is a problem to begin with. Once the admissions process is void of all racial aspects, equality will ensue. Equal opportunity and treatment means that students should compete through academic merits, not through uncontrolled aspects like
Though proponents of affirmative action argue that the policy was issued to resolve discrimination, it actually only adds to the fire. Obviously riled up by the litigation, Michael Medved, writer of many political articles, commentates on the topic of affirmative action by saying that “[others] assume that disadvantaged minorities, particularly Latinos and blacks, are so profoundly handicapped by history that they can’t possibly compete on a level playing field” (2). This fraudulent assumption holds no truth in today’s society. Affirmative action was designed to end discrimination and unfair treatment of students based on color, when in reality it does the opposite. Instead, it leads to reverse discrimination where affirmative action is hypocritical. For instance, a Caucasian applicant who works harder than someone of another race is more qualified academically, the individual does not get the boost since he is white—something that he has no control of; because of this, academic factors should be of higher importance than race during admissions. Joe Messerli, creator and author of almost all content on the balancedpolitics.org website, complies with this statement, asserting: “there 's no association between skin color and intelligence/discipline/etc. so why do we keep drawing attention to it?” (4). Indeed, the only way to fight racism is to stop pretending that racism is a problem to begin with. Once the admissions process is void of all racial aspects, equality will ensue. Equal opportunity and treatment means that students should compete through academic merits, not through uncontrolled aspects like