Affirmative Action essay

Ria Gupta
Human Rights Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is an unnecessary and harmful practice. Although its main intent is to be an acceptable form of compensation for historical disadvantage, minorities will benefit more from having an equal chance as the majority.

If we break down the previous paragraph further, acceptable does not define as fair. Rather, it means effective, compensation is to make up for. Historical disadvantage is how certain races were not encouraged in the past, from having equal opportunities as the majority. However, affirmative action results in a backlash for the supposed 'majority.' Two cases, Hopwood and Bollinger dealt with discrimination against accepting Caucasian applicants that had higher scores/GPA than those of minorities. While one court was in favor of Bollinger, Hopwood lost his case. Those who agree with affirmative action would believe: '' a racially mixed student body is desirable because it allows them to learn more than they would than if all of them came from similar backgrounds."(pg#?) In other words, affirmative action means that the factors of admission increase when a certain race is not represented enough in colleges. The more diversity, the more we learn from others about their culture, which we can somehow incorporate in our lives. Clearly, this system is giving kick backs to minorities based on the assumption that because someone is white, suddenly they are a dime in a dozen. What if the applicant selected instead of Hopwood was of a different color but had the mentality of the average Caucasian? What if Hopwood felt that he associated with the Native American culture more than the one he was born into? Affirmative action is unsuccessful because it looks more at superficial factors than beneath the surface.

Affirmative action meets two categories of questions: moral and constitutional. The moral question touches back to the previous argument: Can affirmative action be justified? This might be connecting to the first paragraph but minorities have a difficult time fulfilling their ideal purpose: making a connection with anyone and sharing their culture with others. A native American college student shared her experience of being in college.” She can't use slang terms from the Lakota language or ask someone if they want to go get some coffee using the language her grandmother taught her when she was younger." (iowastatedaily.com) If minorities cannot fulfill their purpose, and are too immersed in a majority culture, how are they supposed to be considered as unique and fresh perspectives? Since the moral issue is not taken care of, then Affirmative action is useless.

The constitution says, "All men are created equal." the question is does affirmative action help equality? Unfortunately, AA tries to equalize people solely on race. However wealthy families, that are minorities, are not only capable of funding their child(s) education,

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