Why Affirmative Action Does Not Level Out The Playing Field
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Politics and Activism

Why Affirmative Action Does Not Level Out The Playing Field

Asian Americans must score 140 points more than white students of otherwise comparable caliber on the 1600-point SAT in order to be considered equals in the application process.

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Why Affirmative Action Does Not Level Out The Playing Field
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These days, just talking about race can become immediately controversial. But, this is something that needs to be said and is often pushed to the side, despite how racist it actually is. Affirmative action is "the policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who suffer or have suffered from discrimination within a culture."

Now, before I begin, I want to clarify some things. In America, the affirmative action mostly applies to African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. And yes, they were at some point, and arguably still are, suffering from discrimination in American society.

But what about Asians?

They have, at some point, just like any minority in America, suffered from discrimination in our society. Just think back to Japanese internment camps during World War II or the backbreaking work Chinese railroad workers had to endure for little to nothing in return constructing the continental railroad. Every minority, in some way, shape, or form has suffered some form of discrimination and oppression at the hands of someone else, even white people! Go back to my article on white guilt if you don't understand this concept.

I can understand why affirmative action was needed in the late 1900s to bring African Americans and Hispanics up and give them the motivation to succeed during racially-charged times through racial integration. But now, affirmative action has turned into a mechanism that, in the end, gives everyone a disadvantage whether purposeful or not.

In general, affirmative action is a policy mostly used by Ivy League colleges today to fulfill racial quotas. However, a Princeton University study found that "Asian Americans must score 140 points more than white students of otherwise comparable caliber on the 1600-point SAT in order to be considered equals in the application process; it also found that they’d have to score 270 points higher than Latino students and 450 points higher than black students."

Another Princeton University study in 2009 found that "when comparing similar applicants, white students were three times as likely to get admitted as Asians. Hispanics were twice as likely to win admission as whites, and African-American students were five times as likely to be accepted as whites."

On top of all that, another lawsuit came out recently against Harvard University citing that Asians had the biggest gap between applicants vs. accepted students than any other race.

These statistics are truly shocking. The original goal of affirmative action was to encourage racial integration and foster educational opportunities for minorities. However, nowadays it seems its purpose is to target minorities and make it harder for them to get accepted into their dream schools.

How is that not racist?

Some people might say that since African Americans and Hispanics have been "more" oppressed than Asians, affirmative action makes sense and Asians should just deal with the fact that getting into their dream colleges is going to be harder for them. I don't know about you, but whenever an answer like, "well, they're more oppressed than you so deal with it," is given to an argument, I immediately have an issue.

What is this oppression scale you're using and who controls it? Who gets to decide who is more oppressed or not and why does it matter? What's unfair is unfair. The fact that Asians have to work twice as hard as other students to even be considered for a chance to get admitted into Harvard is not by any means fair.

Furthermore, it turns out that affirmative action hurts the minorities it claims to aid as well. African Americans and Hispanics also have the lowest completion rates for public four-year universities. This is probably due to the fact that when they are accepted into schools like Harvard or Yale, they are almost always somewhat behind their Asian and white counterparts that have to score several hundred points higher to be accepted to these schools; so, they feel unprepared for the intense college environment. They are not ready for the rigorously paced courses and intense workloads, and this can be shown clearly by their lower completion rates.


So, what have we gathered? Basically, Asians have to work much, much harder than their Hispanic and African American counterparts to even be considered for that elusive spot in a selective college, and affirmative action doesn't even help who it's supposed to help because it churns in students who are not ready for a much more competitive environment and are overwhelmed, thus leading to higher dropout rates for those races.

In that case, what's the point of affirmative action at all? Why continue to institute this policy when it so clearly does not level the playing field but just makes the playing field harder for everyone?

Race should not be a factor for admissions. This is not how a capitalist economy is supposed to function. If we hired based on race, we'd have doctors who'd make mistakes, cooks that messed up their food, engineers that didn't understand math, etc. A merit-based system is the only solution to a productive society. Individuals should be selected for jobs or colleges or schools based on their merit, not based on the color of their skin.

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