Michelle Tarango English 7-8 February 2023 Affirmative Action is not Necessary Many students put in a lot of effort in high school to increase their college readiness. They excel academically and take part in extracurricular activities like sports or clubs. Imagine putting in a lot of effort to get into your dream school just to be turned down because you are Asian. Your Hispanic classmate was accepted in the meantime, but you knew you had a stronger academic record and portfolio. In order to promote diversity in educational institutions, affirmative action is used. However, because affirmative action eliminates equitable opportunities, does nothing to make up for the past, and the diversity it supposedly creates has no discernible impact on student learning, it is unnecessary. The goal of affirmative action is to promote equality of opportunity. However, by favoring some groups more than others, other groups are left at a disadvantage. Affirmative action allows “members of certain minority groups- such as Hispanics and African-Americans – [to be] accepted with lower qualifications and lower academic credentials than other students, particularly Asian-American students, who are being penalized for their high overall achievements in the academic arena” (Spakovsky). Minorities are getting admitted to institutions for which they are unqualified. As a result, they struggle academically. On the other hand, students who are competent to attend the school but are not members of a minority are turned away. Affirmative action is not creating equal opportunity, but instead taking opportunities away from those who work hard to be qualified. Affirmative action does not make up for prior wrongs. The truth is “the people who benefit from affirmative action are not the ones who have directly suffered those past wrongs. Nor the institutions that provide those benefits perpetrate those past wrongs” (Kahn). Colleges and universities are unrelated to what occurred in the past. They ought to put their efforts toward educating our generation on the importance of identifying people by their efforts and hard work rather than their race as we move forward. To promote diversity on campuses is one of affirmative action's goals. Although diversity is important, in higher education “racial diversity has virtually no effect on educational quality and isn’t the real rationale for the policy” (Kahn). Diversity has no impact on education, and most institutions don't make any efforts to recognize the diversity they claim to create. Regardless, diversity will develop naturally, even if schools don't take race into account. Using race as a factor for acceptance of students, “their admission decisions are based on stereotypes and the assumption that an individual’s race determines how that person thinks and what opinions he or she holds” (Spakovsky). Schools should stop considering race when making decisions and instead focus only on the merits and qualifications of the applicants. Affirmative action, according to some, is required since minorities tend to acquire less education overall because of where they live, which puts them at a disadvantage when applying for highly selective universities. They state that the reality is that “race and education are still inextricably linked. As long as that is true, ‘color blind’ college admissions remain unfair” (Spakovsky). Although some of this is true, affirmative action should be replaced by initiatives to promote the primary and secondary education of minorities. By doing this, they give minorities the chance to be on par with everyone else and allow institutions to accept students based on their performance and grades. This will also stop people who meet the requirements for college from being turned away due to affirmative action. The only way to promote equal opportunity is to disregard race. This stops discrimination from happening and ensures that student efforts and portfolios are the only criteria used for admission. Affirmative action lowers standards for minorities while raising them for non-minorities, despite its stated goal of giving minorities more opportunity. Additionally, it does nothing to make up for previous injustices committed against minorities. On-campus diversity may not always result in better education. There is no need for affirmative action. Instead, schools should give all applicants the same chance by not considering a student's race when considering them for admission to a school.
