Affirmative Action Summary 18

Affirmative Action
Ericka Quarles
University of Phoenix

AFFRIMATIVE ACTION

While many people feel affirmative action is unfair, affirmative action helps many college students. Many Americans believe that affirmative action is like reverse discrimination. They say it lowers the standards of accountability needed to push students to perform better. When others feel affirmative action is needed to help students starting at a disadvantage get a boost into colleges they would have never considered before. Affirmative action also helps many colleges maintain diversity. Affirmative Action has many opposing arguments. Affirmative action was brought about to end discrimination, and the unfair treatment of employees and students based on their color. The American’s who oppose affirmative action says it does just the opposite. More qualified whites can be passed over just on the basis of them being white. The ones who oppose affirmative action say that minorities are not the only ones living in poverty; many whites live in poverty as well.
Critics feel like the way things are set up now a white person that lives in poverty, and works very hard could be passed over by a middle or upper class minority student who does not put in much effort. I found that not to be true. When the former presidents of Princeton and Harvard respectively analyzed the records of 45,000 students at elite universities and found that without race-sensitive admissions white applicant’s chances of being admitted to selective universities would have only increased slightly from 25 to 26.2 percent (Wingert, 2003). Another argument that the ones who oppose affirmative action use is that it lowers the standards of account ability that is needed to push students to perform at their best. With affirmative action setting lower standards for admission, it is lowering the level of accountability.
Affirmative action just means admitting under qualified students. Many critics argue that affirmative... [continues]

Read full essay