The first argument that makes me against affirmative action is that I believe it’s reverse discrimination. Some say that “people should be judged by what they do now, not by what their grandparents did” (LaFollette, 2007). I agree with this statement as I’ve grown in a community and society where all races should be treated equally. In addition, the idea that “whites should compensate blacks for the substantial and ongoing harm to them. Since the harm was intentional, there is reason to think whites also owe blacks punitive damages,” only further divides the two races apart (LaFollette, 2007). Besides, at what point then could we stop treating the two races as two completely different tribes? I don’t care for what my ancestors did or how they were treated, what I know now is that the blacks and the whites that serve with me in the military are all equally my brothers and sisters. I don’t see why we can’t have this mindset for outside the military as well.
The second argument is that I believe people should be judged on merit, not race. Ashley, a member of our class, was part of a school’s admissions team that did just this. She mentioned that she “[assessed] our applicants on their GPA, course selection, test scores, extracurricular activities, resume, personal statement and letters of recommendation – not on the color of their skin or their family’s origin. We do embrace diversity, but at the same time we want to enroll the top, academically gifted students into our institution.” This shows that schools want to hire the best and those who are most likely to succeed within their programs. With this being said, there are ways to give minorities a better chance at success without being discriminatory against whites.
There are multiple ways to give minorities a chance at success who normally wouldn’t have it otherwise. There are many needs-based scholarships out there, where those who are academically gifted but was raised poor, are given the opportunity to go to university. The financial burden is often a concern for minorities as they might not come from wealthy families; this type of scholarship removes that burden. An alternative would be to provide funds to all students. For example “the Kalamazoo Promise provides college scholarships to graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS), a midsized urban school district in Michigan that is racially and economically diverse” (Bartik & Lachowska, 2014). What the KPS school system has found after making this offer was a 0.7 average GPA increase in African American students (Bartik & Lachowska, 2014). This increase is huge and offers black students a legitimate opportunity in schools not because of their race, but because of their self-determination and personal abilities to achieve success on their own.
The two reasons I’m against affirmative action is because I believe it’s reverse discrimination and that it judges people based on race and not merit. I believe that alternatives can be found to include needs-based scholarships, which will naturally equalize the racial distribution of all accepted applicants. Opportunities shouldn’t be given to someone based on race, but rather potential for success.
References
Bartik, T., & Lachowska, M. (2014). The Kalamazoo promise scholorship: College funds boost grades of African American students. Education Next.
LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Malden, MA: WileyBlackwell.
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