Since the colonial era of America, racism has taken away countless opportunities for minorities. With the Civil Rights movement and the turn of the 21st century, calls for racial equality thunder in the wake of centuries of discrimination. Americans now understand the importance of having equal opportunities. These opportunities are the reason why so many people came to America in the first place—so they could get the same chance to succeed as others, regardless of who they were or where they came from. However, a history of racism has robbed thousands of minorities of that chance. In order to make up for this history, Americans have a desire to give this chance back to those minorities who struggled against discrimination. In addition, America
…show more content…
This mismatch situation occurs when a university accepts minorities because of racial preferences and not merit. The situation becomes a problem because “the qualifications of minority students would on average be below those of other students. As a result, they tend to rank at the lower end of their classes, even when they are good students, because affirmative action makes them compete against even better students” (Becker). Affirmative action tends to place under-qualified minority students in overly competitive universities. As a result, these students are not academically prepared for the rigor of the school, and they end up underperforming and falling behind their peers. While these minorities may succeed at less competitive schools that teach at the appropriate pace, racial preferences put them in excessively rigorous schools in which a class of much more prepared students surrounds them. Because of this much faster pace of learning, “the student who is underprepared relative to others in that class falls behind from the start and becomes increasingly lost as the professor and his classmates race ahead. His grades on his first exams or papers put him at the bottom of the class” (Sander and Taylor). Professors will gear their teaching styles towards the larger group of students who are academically …show more content…
Many students are unable to go to the universities they deserve because of their economic disadvantage. Walter Michaels, a professor at UC Berkeley, reveals that at Harvard, “ninety percent of the undergraduates come from families earning more than $42,000 a year (the median household income in the U.S.)—and some 77 percent come from families with incomes of more than $80,000, although only about 20 percent of American households have incomes that high” (Michaels 146). The fact that the majority of undergraduates at one of the most elite schools in America come from richer families proves that wealth is a significant factor in college admissions and attendance. If colleges only accept students from richer families, then those who come from lower-income families—and not necessarily minority ones—have a large disadvantage. However, some people claim that affirmative action actually helps mitigate this economic inequality because the minorities it benefits are usually the ones coming from lower-income families. While many minorities do come from poorer families, the fact is not necessarily true for all minorities. In addition, there are many white students who also come from a lower-income background but are not given this advantage in colleges. Although poverty tends to appear more in minorities like blacks and
This mismatch situation occurs when a university accepts minorities because of racial preferences and not merit. The situation becomes a problem because “the qualifications of minority students would on average be below those of other students. As a result, they tend to rank at the lower end of their classes, even when they are good students, because affirmative action makes them compete against even better students” (Becker). Affirmative action tends to place under-qualified minority students in overly competitive universities. As a result, these students are not academically prepared for the rigor of the school, and they end up underperforming and falling behind their peers. While these minorities may succeed at less competitive schools that teach at the appropriate pace, racial preferences put them in excessively rigorous schools in which a class of much more prepared students surrounds them. Because of this much faster pace of learning, “the student who is underprepared relative to others in that class falls behind from the start and becomes increasingly lost as the professor and his classmates race ahead. His grades on his first exams or papers put him at the bottom of the class” (Sander and Taylor). Professors will gear their teaching styles towards the larger group of students who are academically …show more content…
Many students are unable to go to the universities they deserve because of their economic disadvantage. Walter Michaels, a professor at UC Berkeley, reveals that at Harvard, “ninety percent of the undergraduates come from families earning more than $42,000 a year (the median household income in the U.S.)—and some 77 percent come from families with incomes of more than $80,000, although only about 20 percent of American households have incomes that high” (Michaels 146). The fact that the majority of undergraduates at one of the most elite schools in America come from richer families proves that wealth is a significant factor in college admissions and attendance. If colleges only accept students from richer families, then those who come from lower-income families—and not necessarily minority ones—have a large disadvantage. However, some people claim that affirmative action actually helps mitigate this economic inequality because the minorities it benefits are usually the ones coming from lower-income families. While many minorities do come from poorer families, the fact is not necessarily true for all minorities. In addition, there are many white students who also come from a lower-income background but are not given this advantage in colleges. Although poverty tends to appear more in minorities like blacks and