Hopefully, there will come a day when affirmative action is no longer necessary and will be eliminates, as it was never meant to be a permanent institution; however, today is not that day. Affirmative action was put in place as a way to level the playing field between minorities and white people and to counter the disadvantages minorities face. For about a century, African Americans were busy acting as slaves and for even longer, they were busy being treated as second class citizens without fundamental rights. Throughout all that time, white people (men especially) were free to attend college, establish legacies for their families, and educate themselves to establish further establish their race as the dominant race in American society. For now, affirmative action acts to give minorities an institution that acts similarly to the legacies that African Americans as a whole have not yet had the opportunity to create for themselves; it is used to make the college process more fair in that now minorities are given an advantage in the process similar to the legacies many white applicants have. In the long term, affirmative action will hopefully create legacies in the African American community, making the process somewhat equal between races. I did say SOMEWHAT however. The legacy aspect of affirmative action is just that, a single aspect. Affirmative action is also needed because of some not-so-blatent racism that still exists. I can't think of a better way to illustrate said racism than one of the many studies Ali brought up during PD (shout out to Ali for all that research): admissions staff members were given two people with equal credentials, one having a traditionally white name and the other having stereotypically black name, and the student with the white name was always chosen ahead of the student with the black name (Daquan, Tyrone). Affirmative action counter acts the racism shown in that experiment. The hope is that affirmative action will increase high level education in minorities to the point where minorities and white people are equal in society and such racism will no longer exist. Granted, their are other factors in achieving said equality, so affirmative action may stay in place for a protracted while longer. To the opponents who say "affirmative action isn't fair," I present this: Are the results of the aforementioned experiment fair? Without affirmative action, those results would dominate admissions. Even more, was it fair that minorities had to endure being treated like animals and given no rights whilst white people were free to pursue education and power? I personally don't think so. I'd also like to point out that affirmative action does not value unqualified minorities over qualified minorities in admissions, it simply acts as a sort of tiebreaker between equally qualified applicants, one being white and the other not being white. I do concede, however, that it is not completely right to, to an extent, punish a white student for the possible actions of his or her ancestors. But, the level of unfairness is rather miniscule. And it is a small price to pay for the advancement of a society. Even the great Niccolo Machiavelli agreed, "The ends justify the means." In the instance of affirmative action, Mr. Machiavelli was correct. Affirmative action is still needed, but when the day comes that it is appropriately and justifiably abolished, I will be glad. :)
"This is for every ghetto in the world. Every little boy, little girl.
I don't know you, but I feel your pain. So for real, I'm making it rain.
We waiting on a savior, maybe [Affirmative Action]."
-Young Jeezy
Sincerely,
AZ
#DoItForDaquan
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