Affirmative Action | Teen Ink

Affirmative Action

January 11, 2010
By Anonymous

Should the chance of getting into the college of your choice really be based on your physical traits you can’t control? Affirmative action bases your race and gender on your chance of getting into colleges. If you are of a minority or a female, you get extra points. Do you think that’s really fair? Affirmative action is wrong, and colleges really shouldn’t compare people like that. Getting into college should be based on how smart you are, not physical traits like race or gender.

By giving advantages to the minorities, you are being racist against the majorities like whites. The minorities can overpower a white guy who has better test scores and who is smarter. The “preferences hurt poor whites and even many Asians… If preferences were truly meant to remedy disadvantage, they would be given on the basis of disadvantage, not on the basis of race” (Sacks and Thiel, 1). That is honestly not fair to base something like that on getting into college. College should accept people based on their test scores and not the color of their skin.

By having affirmative action, you are becoming more racist. You assume they aren’t smart enough to get in on their own. According to Sacks and Thiel, racism is made worse, “the same push for ‘diversity’ also has led Stanford to create racially segregated… programs… ceremonies… and gender studies” (1). Back in the day, minorities were treated differently, and they wanted to be like everyone else. Racism cannot be fixed with more racism so, a “racist past cannot be undone” (Sacks and Thiel, 1). By having affirmative action, you treat them differently by giving them the extra points for the color of their skin and their gender. You should only look at the test scores to see who truly belongs in a college.

Some say a lot of minorities live in poor situations and deserve the extra points. True, but it is not true that every single minority does. Some think “a wealthy minority rules over an oppressed majority” (Pryse, 1). Not all poor people are minorities. Some whites are in poor situations too. You could have two kids, one being white and the other being black, at the same school. If one of them was a little bit smarter than the other, don’t you think he should have the better chance getting into the college? If the white kid was truly the smarter one, affirmative action would give the black kid more points only for their race. Should this really affect the situation that much?

Affirmative action should be stopped. It gives an unfair advantage based on something you can’t control. It is being racist against the minorities, as well as the majorities. You assume the minorities can’t get in alone, and the majorities don’t get the advantage. Getting into colleges should only be based off test scores and how smart a person is. Affirmative action should stop. If you were applying to college right now, is this something you think your chance should be based on?



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