Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is a very heated topic in today’s society. Many people are afraid to speak out and express how they really feel about this subject for fear if they wish to end Affirmative Action, they will be considered an evil racist. For me, I wish to speak out. Some people the definition of this idea may not be know. What is Affirmative Action? Affirm native Action is the idea of giving special privileges to minorities. Allowing minorities get accepted in colleges and jobs just based on their group. I am opposed to the idea of keeping affirmative action around. Even though I am a female, and this idea is supposed to be beneficial to me, I still feel affirmative action is wrong. Affirmation action has been overused and stretched way too far that the main purpose has diminished. I feel this idea has not helped our society become more equal. It is creating many more problems then it is helping problems. The problems that must be recognized are admitting lesser-qualified people into colleges and jobs, reverse discrimination, and is creating many more inequalities by separating specific groups due to race or gender and giving them special privileges.
Affirmative action leads to admitting lesser-qualified people into colleges and jobs. Minimally qualified is a far cry from equally or best qualifies. This begs the question of whether it is right to admit a student to a college who is minimally qualified, and thus, least likely to succeed. Liberals love to claim, “Minorities are under-represented” in colleges and universities. Based on this under-represented, the playing field should be leveled using racial or gender based quotas. No other criterion-test scores, grades, or experience are acceptable if they don’t result in diversity. To me, this affected me when I was a senior applying for colleges, and will continue to affect me when I am looking to be hired. To think that some kids who are a minority will be able to get into college just because of their race, even if I had a better GPA or test scores. To think I could be denied acceptance to a college or to a job because some minority gets it first. Even if I worked so hard all four years in high school, and have another student, who is a minority, work half as hard, and that student will get accepted into college based on race. Affirmative Action leads directly to lower or even no standards of excellence. The only standard of excellence that has any value under affirmative is skin color, gender, and ethnicity. We are left with minimal and not even average students and employees. Would you want a minimally qualified surgeon, dentist, or pilot?
I also believe that Affirmative Action is reverse discrimination. Some claim that only whites can be racist since only they have power. They say that it is impossible to discriminate against white, even if a program [next page]