Affirmative Action

The prompt states that because Barack Obama is now president, Affirmative Action is no longer necessary.

I disagree with this statement because I don't believe that Barack Obama's presidency has anything to do with the relevance of Affirmative Action.

However, I do agree that Affirmative Action should not be implemented.

This is because it is essentially racism. Affirmative Action determines the privileges that people can or cannot have, based purely on their race. More specifically, Affirmative Action makes it much easier for a Black or Latino person to be accepted into a university than a White person.

The basic argument for those who support Affirmative Action is that minorities such as Blacks and Latinos are socioeconomically underprivileged, and whites are more well-off. Therefore, blacks and Latinos, despite lower test scores and grade point averages, should be accepted into a college over a White person with higher educational performance.

I think that this is wrong for several reasons. First of all, I believe that a person should be given educational opportunities based on their abilities and performance, rather than race. If a white person is more qualified for the spot, then he or she deserves that spot. If a White person does not qualify for the spot, then he or she does not deserve it. If our society is to overcome racial prejudices, then race should not matter in any case. This is because college classes are known to be difficult and extremely challenging, and only students who have previously shown that they can handle the level of work load and material should be allowed the spot. If a student does poorly, then why should they be given a spot in a much-desired college? People say that they want to overcome racism, but isn't apportioning privileges according to race, basically just another form of racism?

I do agree that minorities such as blacks and Latinos are generally poorer and underprivileged. However, public schools are free!! It doesn't cost money to do well in high school. Sure, money helps, if a student wants a tutor, but how many successful students are really hiring tutors? If a person wants to do well in school, they only have to want to try hard and work hard. If they keep working and studying, then they'll get good grades. I never had a tutor and I still do well in school. Besides, there are plenty of poor people of other races besides just blacks and Latinos.

Oftentimes an underprivileged student has to take away from their time devoted to schoolwork in order to take care of a younger sibling or work a job to support the family. As a result, grades suffer. However, I don't think that this is sufficient reason to say that underprivileged minorities with poorer grades should be accepted into colleges over a white person with good grades. As I said above, how are they going to keep up with the college work if they didn't even do well in high school? I agree that it's extremely unfair that they didn't have the opportunity to do well in high school, but the fact remains that they did not do well and therefore it would be against all odds for them to do well in a prestigious college. Accepting an underprivileged student into a prestigious college is not going to fix the injustices done to them earlier on in high school.

I guess there is no easy solution to the imbalance in our society. Affirmative Action is not fair for those who have worked hard in school and who do not fit into the "Underprivileged Minority" category. Affirmative Action only solidifies the boundaries between races and confirms the prejudices that people have. I mean, look at the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The Banks family were black, and they were LOADED! They live in BEL AIR! I'm Asian and living in Ghettoland, I mean, Reseda. GEEZ! MY HOUSE IS THE SIZE OF ANGELINA JOLIE'S CLOSET! And because I'm going to be grouped into the "Asian" category, it's going to be harder to get into UCLA.

I totally agree that it is really really unfair to the poorer minorities that they don't have the same opportunities to excel in school. It's really not fair. However, placing them in advanced universities is not going to give them the education they deserve. The real problem here is that they were not given the opportunity to excel in high school. Whether it be because of single parents, or preoccupation with other important matters that draw away from schoolwork, these are reasons that cannot be fixed by giving more advantages in college. I think that something should be done earlier on, to help them so that they can be qualified to be accepted into high-status colleges.