Affirmative action not as discriminatory as it appears

College+students+of+various+ethnicities+prepare+to+graduate+after+a+successful+college+experience.+Photo+by+hmm360%2C+MorgueFile

College students of various ethnicities prepare to graduate after a successful college experience. Photo by hmm360, MorgueFile

ALLISON NG, Staff Writer

I’m a little confused as to where the whole “colleges are racist” attitude is coming from.

The problem is supposedly affirmative action. But it seems to be more of a misunderstanding than anything else, and in November, this affirmative action misconception stirred up a lot of controversy about college admission policies that went all the way to a federal court in Boston.

Students for Fair Admission, an organization formed on behalf of students that claim they were rejected from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) because of their race, has recently filed a lawsuit against those universities.

Now, Harvard and UNC are fighting to defend their admission policies.

“Harvard says they look at the whole student and UNC claims that diversity benefits their entire student body,” according to an article on WFSU, the news and media site for Florida State University.

Well, isn’t that nice? It almost sounds too good to be true. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be true.

Let’s clarify. Affirmative action is not a concept that leads admission officers to look at a student’s race, snap their fingers, and make a split-second decision. Rather, it is a practice that is designed to ensure equal opportunity for all students, because not everyone is born with the same chance for success.

English teacher Jennifer Cioffi notes that affirmative action can be beneficial. “One of the pros is that it levels the playing field for women and minorities,” she said.

Racism, on the other hand, is when one race develops a holier-than-thou attitude towards others because they believe their own race is superior to others.

To put it in simple mathematical terms: affirmative action does not equal racism.

Joe Messerli, a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures, has analyzed both the pros and cons of affirmative action. He wrote on the NCSL webpage, “Institutions often offer financial aid to underrepresented students and provide on-campus support programs to improve their academic success.”

Of course, this leads to the question of why improving the academic success of underrepresented students actually matters.

You might say it’s because all colleges would like to have a diverse groups of students on their campuses to improve their image, which is very true. The fact is that we live in a melting pot of cultures, and “colleges and universities [should be] more representative of their surrounding community,” said Messerli.

But that’s only half of the story.

The other half—perhaps the more important half—is done for the sake of improving the community. In today’s society, employers prefer to hire workers with college degrees. Thus, providing minorities with a greater opportunity for education increases their chances for employment later in life.

From the looks of it, affirmative action has been fulfilling this purpose. According to an article published by Santa Clara University, “In the past 25 years, black participation in the work force has increased 50 percent and the percentage of blacks holding managerial positions has jumped fivefold.”

With an educated and better life, minorities are less likely to descend into poverty or crime. And isn’t having race being accounted for in college applications a small price to pay if it leads to an improved society?

I think it is. But perhaps the biggest problem people have with affirmative action is that it considers one’s race.

While this fact cannot be denied, there is a general misunderstanding of how heavy of an emphasis is placed on race. Say there’s an American student that significantly outperforms a student of a non-American race. Universities aren’t going to take the minority student just for the sake of increasing their diversity.

I know I can’t be judged on my race alone. There have been times where people have said, “Oh, your SAT score isn’t really that high, especially for an Asian; you might not be able to get in.”

Who says I can’t?

It is true that as an Asian American, I am aware that other students of my ethnicity are extremely high achieving students, especially academically, and I know that many of them outperform me. However, my application will have other information on it besides grades and test scores, and this information could be what sets me apart.

Senior Samantha Ho recognizes that affirmative action can’t always be considered a good thing.

“I see why [colleges] use it, especially with all the stereotypes for different races, but it is unfair,” she said.

She has a point. I know it can work against me, and maybe it works against you too. Affirmative action does not consider all students as equal.

But that’s not its purpose. In the words of author Rick Wormeli, “fair isn’t always equal.”

That’s exactly right. And that’s why affirmative action exists: to make things equal.