Affirmative Action

For the past 50 years, many colleges and companies across the United States have tried to increase diversity in their populations. In order to do this, they enacted affirmative action policies that gave minorities an advantage in the admissions and hiring process. Many of these colleges and companies have justified their discrimination by saying that these affirmative action policies are a way to increase diversity and a way to compensate for past wrongs. I believe that affirmative action policies are examples of blatant racism and it is imperative that we find another way to solve our low diversity issue.

Why is it racism? The simple answer would be because they unfairly favor minorities. Sandel stated that it’s not racism because the colleges need a black person and that’s the trait they are looking for and that this makes it okay. Using this logic, it would be fair to say that discrimination against blacks in restaurants in the 1950’s was completely okay. If blacks did eat at the restaurant then it would drive out the whites and the whites are the customers that the restaurant owners are looking for. Using that logic it was okay for colleges to discriminate in the 1950’s because at that time they were looking for the white trait. I just can’t comprehend how one could justify this.

Fighting fire with fire, that’s what affirmative action policies are doing. We are discriminating so that we can compensate for past wrongs—the past wrongs being discrimination. I believe that the better way to increase diversity is to start at the bottom and work our way up. How? Well, the first thing that should be done is secondary school reform. In the US, a majority of high schools are in poor order. Many can’t meet the minimum competency requirements. In the US, dropout rates are at an all-time high—especially for minority students. In 2009, there were 3 million 16 to 24 year olds who never enrolled in high school or nor had a diploma or GED (Huffington Post).In 2009, 4.8 percent of blacks and 5.8 percent of Hispanics between the ages of 15 and 24 dropped out of high school. More astounding facts include: 70 percent of eight graders can’t read proficiently, and most will never catch up. 44 percent of dropouts under the age of 24 are jobless (The Broad Foundation). These are very surprising numbers. This is what leads to decreased diversity in post-secondary education and in many workplaces. If there are honest efforts at bettering the public school system, then I believe that diversity in the workplace and in colleges will automatically increase.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/high-school-dropout-rates_n_1022221.html

http://broadeducation.org/about/crisis_stats.html