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and its effect on “white” students
in the college admissions
process
The information we are about to present is a compilation of research collected about what is perceived by some Americans as being a social
injustice. Affirmative action is a highly controversial issue with no right or wrong
answer, explicitly apparent in the Supreme Court’s ongoing differences of opinion as to the
policy’s constitutionality. The opinion of affirmative action that we are portraying is not necessarily representative of the opinions of
members of this group, but rather a representation of what some Americans view
as a social problem.
Affirmative ActionAffirmative action is a policy to encourage equal
opportunity and to level the playing field for groups of people who have been and are discriminated against.
Affirmative action has its origins in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted to eliminate racial imbalances in
hiring policies and later college admissions and government contracts.
According to the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC), affirmative action “is considered essential to assuring
that jobs are genuinely and equally accessible to qualified persons, without regard to their race, sex, or
ethnic background”. Provisions were later added to protect women, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
The IssueSarah and Maria are both seniors at a Manhattan public
high schoolSarah
Maria-1410 SAT (800 V/610 M)
- Top 5% of her class
-Varsity Field Hockey (4 years; Captain – senior year)
- Editor-in-chief of Yearbook
- Student Government (4 years; President – senior year)
- Volunteering: tutoring elementary school students at a local public
school
- Church Youth Group
- Class Scholar (“most well-rounded student”, the school’s equivalent of
Valedictorian)
-1120 SAT (510 V/610 M)
- Top 10% of her class
-Varsity Softball (2 years)
- Candids Editor of Yearbook
- Chorus, School Musicals (2 years)
- Volunteering: tutoring elementary school students at a local public
school
- Science Department Award
SarahSarah MariaMariaHere’s where they each
applied…
Tufts
Harvard
Georgetown
University of Michigan
Fordham
Tufts
Trinity
Marist
University of Connecticut
Connecticut College
Let’s see how they did…
SarahSarah MariaMariaTufts – W.L., later rejected
Harvard - Accepted
Georgetown - Accepted
University of Michigan - Accepted
Fordham - Accepted
Tufts - Accepted
Trinity - Accepted
Marist - Accepted
University of Connecticut - Accepted
Connecticut College - Accepted
Did we mention that Sarah is categorically “white” and Maria is
“hispanic”?
HmmmHmmmm….m….
Implications of Affirmative Action in the college admissions process
- the process has been reduced to a race orientation rather than a combination of grades, test scores, alumni status, personal talents (athletics, art, music, theater), region of the country, ethnic status, extra-curricular activities (volunteerism), number of seats in a program, etc…
- benefits and burdens are obtained for reasons other than merit; the concept of merit is waived in favor of a race-conscious decision
- holds whites responsible for insufficiencies in the education system and wrongs made by whites in the past
- white Europeans are often consolidated into the “white” classification although they are part of a minority in the United States
- whites become “invisible victims” because it is generally not disclosed as to which students who were rejected could have been accepted without the presence of affirmative action
- causes racial resentment
- people of color are stigmatized
- whites are often assumed to have full opportunities in society while in many cases they may be experiencing the same or even more deficiencies that society claims are often inevitable for many minorities
- institutionalization of consideration of race in higher education (as well as the workplace) means that it will become increasingly difficult to depart from that process and be able to eventually phase out affirmative action completely
- white students being rejected in favor of minority students with equal or lesser qualifications does not solve the problem of discrepancies in education, which is a primary demand for affirmative action in recent times
- US law as well as other institutions should be colorblind – continuing programs that divide by race only perpetuates existence of a nation divided by color
- preference to minorities is seen as discrimination against non-minorities
More Implications…
SOME STATISTICS…
Harvard
Source: www.ncpa.org
- non-Jewish white – 25%
(75% of general population)
-Asian American – 20%(2-3% of general population)
- African American – 8%
(12% of general population)
- Hispanic – 7%(10% of general population)
- Jewish – 30%(2-3% of general population)
UCLA School of Law- Statistics are before and after
enactment of the California Civil Rights Initiative (1996) – Fall ’96
and Fall ‘97
- White enrollment: 14%
- Asian American enrollment: 7%
- African American enrollment: 108/21
* Affirmative action caused 144 white and Asian American students
with equal or higher academic credentials to be turned away in
favor of African Americans
Shelby SteeleShelby Steele an African-American woman who opposes Affirmative
Action
“Distinctions based on race are the same distinctions that caused me to go to a segregated school when I was a kid, so I know the other side of it. It’s evil, and any time that we give
racial distinctions play in public policy we hurt people-someone’s going to be at the wrong end.” –S. Steele
- Young Black Americans have been given the message that they don’t have to compete within education admissions and employment applications because their race will help them based on the idea of “disincentive”: ‘no matter how you
perform, we’re going to let you in’.
- Abolishment of double standard-in order to give Blacks ability and incentive to compete with other young people.
Court Cases debating the Court Cases debating the use of Affirmative Actionuse of Affirmative Action
Regents of the University of California v.
Bakke • Rulings sated that race
could be a consideration in the admission to colleges
and universities, but only in a small limited effect
• Justice Powell said that race could be a “plus” to an
individual
Grutter v. Bollinger
• Upheld Justice Powell’s “plus” process
• Affirmative Action is still constitutional
Gratz v. Bollinger
• Affirmative Action is unconstitutional
when it gives an unfair advantage
• Race cannot be decisive in admissions
processes