Jack Thorman - Affirmative Action

I strongly believe in affirmative action. Those who say it’s unfair or it’s reverse racism are ignoring the basic fact that our country is still racially divided. Without affirmative action, there would be little social mobility for minority races. Minority children would continue to struggle to get into college due to a lack of money and resources. Meanwhile, white kids with their better schools, their legacy privileges, and their SAT tutors, would continue to dominate in elite universities. This of course would then lead to a more educated and prepared white population who would then take on the top jobs and the cycle would begin again. When motivated minority students are given opportunities with the adjusted requirements, they often are able to succeed and move up the socio-economic ladder.

The debate we had on Friday didn’t change my mind on the topic; however, it did confuse me a little. I got the sense that people were arguing based off the assumption that affirmative action is random. This is not true though. Although some of the qualifications needed for a child to get into a college are less rigorous, it is by no means random. A child who does not care about his work and is not motivated is likely not getting into an elite college no matter their race. In fact, the rare case in which a child is likely to get in without the proper qualifications is if their parents have donated money to the school, which is something that helps white kids more than minority kids. In a perfect world, affirmative action would be unnecessary and would be seen as racist, but we still live in a country where being white significantly increases your chances of going to college and we need some type of system to create equal opportunity.