Affirmative

The primary goal of affirmative action in the academic community was to provide students of every race a more equal opportunity for higher education. This policy targets the underrepresented minorities, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, who come mostly from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. Affirmative action was carried upon this logic: ethnicity and economic status, which are often interrelated, should not be an impediment for equally well-qualified students to obtaining higher education. For most prestigious universities, the easiest way to achieve this goal is by giving extra points to minority applicants during the process of admission selection. Although affirmative action does benefit minorities like African Americans and Hispanics, many side effects show that this policy is flawed and shortsighted. Affirmative action does not only adversely affect the under-represented Asian Americans but also puts many well-qualified students, who are not part of the “minority” profile, at a disadvantage.  
Although the ultimate goal to is to promote diversity and equal opportunities, affirmative action targets African Americans and Hispanics. Although equality is precisely what the US as a country symbolizes, social stratifications still exist. Among these stratifications, racial hierarchies are the most noticeable. Statistics show that while high-income occupations and prestigious universities are predominantly occupied by Caucasians and Asian Americans, the minorities such as African American and Hispanics fall in the lower stratum. Condaliza Rice and Willie Brown are extreme exceptions. The government decided to alleviate this stratification by legalizing affirmative action, giving exclusive help to the disadvantaged races. Affirmative action was carried out after the U.S Supreme Court ruled that race could be considered in college admissions (Carmargo).   For a time, “University of Michigan automatically gave extra points to African-American, Latino and... [continues]

Read full essay