Affirmative Inaction: Colored College Admissions

Affirmative Inaction: Colored College Admissions Students are increasingly being admitted to colleges based on the color of their skin, rather than their actual talent that sets them apart from others because of Affirmative Action programs. Affirmative Action is defined as:
“any policies that (a) attempt to actively dismantle institutionalized or informal cultural norms and systems of ascriptive group-based disadvantage, and the inequalities historically resulting from them, and/or that (b) attempt to promote an ideal of inclusive community, as in ideals of democracy, integration, and pluralism (multiculturalism), (c) by means that classify people according to their ascriptive identities (race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.)
“President Kennedy, as a way to fight discrimination, first coined the term Affirmative Action in 1961. Later on President Johnson employed Affirmative Action as a means of “a more profound stage of the battle for civil rights . . . not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and result”” (“Background on Affirmative Action.”). Over the past few decades Affirmative Action has grown out of where it originated from and been altered to the extent where it has lost touch with its original intent. A prime example of the misuse of Affirmative Action can be seen in the college admissions process. The arguments against Affirmative Action fall into two categories. First Affirmative Action is immoral and causes individuals to act in an immoral manner, and second, rather than positive consequences Affirmative Action has a net negative consequence on individuals. The removal of Affirmative Action programs in colleges will lead to a colorblind admissions process that is fair to all races. The use of law enforcement could ensure that minorities are not discriminated against in the
Affirmative Action especially causes a reverse discriminate effect against Asian Americans, although also against Caucasians. The reverse discrimination caused from preferential treatment to African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans discriminates against Asian Americans because they lose spots at colleges that they would have otherwise received. At the UC San Diego Medical School “chicanos were offered admission at five times the rate of whites and nineteen times the rate of Japanese Americans. [Asian Americans are a] nonwhite, racialized minority [that are] being hurt by [Affirmative Action]” (“Race and Representation: Affirmative Action” 273). If the goal of Affirmative Action is to reverse discrimination done to minorities in the past then Asian Americans should be included in Affirmative Action programs, not discriminated against further. College Affirmative Action programs completely ignore, if not intentionally harm, Asian American students. Statistics shown from the “University of California Berkeley show that 41 percent of the students attending are from an Asian American background [up from 20 percent before affirmative action was forbidden]. On the other hand only 14 percent of the students attending Harvard University” (College Reviews by Students for Students – College