Affirmative Action: Causing more trouble than doing Good.

One of the policies that many colleges are taking upon admitting students is the affirmative action. Although some may argue this policy is an effective procedure for preventing unfairness among the different races, it is only a new form of discrimination; this time, not against the minority, but against the majority. The policy is based on mere assumption that all students or minority background are always at disadvantage compared to any white student; therefore, the admissions committee should accept a minority student even if he does not meet the standards of admission. By doing so, a college may reject a more qualified applicant just because he happened to be born in majority group, create resentment against the minority by the rejected white students, and at its worst, spread the dangerous illusion of opportunity or sense of inferiority among those who belong in minority groups.

          Every fall, the college admissions department officers receive hundreds of applicants who ardently desire to attend their college. Since there are only a limited number of people who can be admitted, it is the admission department's mission to sort out the most competitive applicants with highest potential. However, the Affirmative Action prevents the admissions officers from accepting students who are in the top tier of huge applicant pool. For the entering class at Berkeley in 1994, the mean grade-point averages were 3.43 for blacks, 3.65 for Hispanics, 3.86 for whites, and 3.95 for Asians. Among these same freshmen, the mean SAT scores were 994 for blacks, 1032 for Hispanics, 1256 for whites, and 1293 for Asians. Assume that there are two high school seniors who have exactly the same GPA, same standardized test scores, similar extracurricular records, and excellent recommendations. Student A is a child from high income family whose parents could afford to send him to expensive summer colleges and test-prep courses. Student B, in contrast, is from a low-income family. He had to struggle to balance his school activities and grades when he also had to deal with his family's financial situation. Instead of spending his summer in romantic college campuses, he had to work and take care of the house until his parents came back home late at night. If both are from the same ethnic group, the college admissions committee will be likely accept student B, who obviously has more potential.

However, as the statistics shows, if Affirmative Action applies only to Student A, student B would be put at a disadvantage. In Harvard, only 10% of undergraduates come from households that earn less than $42,000 a year, which is the median income of American families. However, about 77% of the undergraduates come from families with income of more than $80,000 when only about 20% of homes have income that high. A person's racial status does not prevent him from attending SAT prep-course. The statistics evidently show that it is the amount of monetary income that gives the student advantage or disadvantage at gaining acceptance letter to a college. The supporters of Affirmative Action claim that without it, all the colleges will lose cultural diversity. That is, if those supporters think the skin color of the student body is the only thing that determines diversity in the university. It is ironic how a student who is 1/8^th Hispanic and 7/8^th white is still allowed to check off the box "Hispanic" in his application. If the college truly wants more cultural diversity, then they should accept more international applicants instead of those who were born in the United States and had no access to their own ancestor's culture in their whole life.?

White students, who are aware of such practices, may be provoked to believe that he was robbed of the just reward for his hard work. Even though there is no solid proof, he may think he was rejected not by the content of his academics, but the color of his skin. This feeling of being victimized by injustice may evoke him to bear grudge against the minority groups, whom he believes, stole his right to attend his dream college. In 1997 the UCLA School of Medicine had approximately 5,000 applicants for 200 seats. Applicants checking the "black" or "Hispanic" box are considered as disadvantaged racial minorities. Applicants checking the "white" or "Asian" box are considered non-minority applicants. The results of admission statistics showed:

Black and Hispanic students, despite their lower GPA and MCAT, were three times as likely to get into UCLA School of Medicine than Asian or white applicants. Asian and white students seeing this statistics would certainly feel that the race of an applicant has something to do with their admission chances. Such feelings bring the venomous cycle that has endlessly plagued the U.S: racial tension between different ethnic groups. University of California Regent Ward Connerly states "to have one standard for someone who is black and another standard for someone who is white ... I think that's a preference" and also says "I can't tell you the number of people who are white and male who say that 'I would've been here except for affirmative action.' There's no evidence of that, but there's that perception in their minds." Large parts of hate-crimes that still haunt the American society are enacted by those who believe that the small alien groups are embezzling their just payment for their labor. It also elicits the people of majority to hold prejudice against the minority students, presuming that such students were accepted "just because" he was in a minority group. American people have fought long and hard to get rid of racial prejudices, and favoring one group over another clearly goes against the American ideals.

            Lastly, the Affirmative Action also works negatively towards that minority students. Many may start assuming that they do not have to work hard to be accepted to a college because they could take advantage of their ethnic status. This delusion of safety makes them naive and hinders them from performing their maximum capability. To others, the policy implies that they are inferior to the white students; therefore, they need some "special" help to get into a college. Would a hard-working minority student feel proud of his intellectual achievements when he finds out that the admissions department in his dream college granted him acceptance partly because the Affirmative Action applied to him? The answer is probably no. By setting different standards of admission, Affirmative Action prevents many from working to their highest potential and also makes many feel that they are innately beneath the whites. Affirmative Action can also create resentment among the different minority groups in the United States. On February 3^rd, 2003, a student organization at UCLA launched a bake sale parody, demonstrating what they considered as “the racist, discriminatory practices of affirmative action.?In their protest, they charged different amounts for the same product according to the buyer’s race. African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and females could purchase a cookie for $ 0.25 while white males and all Asian Pacific Americans were charged $2. How is it that the students selling cookies did not give Asians, who are considered as minority in the United States just like Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans, the privilege of receiving same object for the same price? Asian students who were buying cookies for $2.00 and not $0.25 would be puzzled by this demonstration, if not feel that they are suffering disadvantage. Despite the claim that Affirmative Action eliminates racism in society, it is clear that there are college students who are enormously discontented with the policy and regard it as only the new form of discrimination.

?#060;/span>           Affirmative Action is an outdated reminiscence of the past which hinders U.S. to give equal opportunities to all races, whether the ethnic group is white, black, Latino, or Asian. Although it may be praised for its idealism of eliminating all racial prejudices, it is likely to create the most distressing side effects than its creators ever intended. Race should never be a factor that affects a person’s chance at obtaining what he deserves. Affirmative Action clearly violates an individual’s right to claim his rightful reward by incorporating the factor which he did not have any control over into the admission process.