Discrimination doesn’t end with a piece of legislation, and racism doesn’t die with a new policy. The problem’s roots did not begin there. They came from inside of man — in a human’s perception and heart.
Affirmative action originated as a form of compensation for the injustices of a past generation, and it’s time to do away with it.
You do not fight prejudice with discrimination, and the modern notion of equality painted by promising politicians must be redefined.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court said Michigan could legally prohibit the use of affirmative action regarding the admission of students to its universities. However, Michigan is not the first state to do this.
The problem with affirmative action in regards to college admission is that discrimination is the nature of the game.
Equality is impossible with its current meaning among the public. It is not that “everyone gets the same thing,” but that everyone gets the same opportunities. What a person decides to do with those opportunities is up them.
Then again, no person is presented with the same opportunities. It seems like life discriminates, too, on who will receive what.
In regards to affirmative action in college admission and the workplace, the most qualified person should be first in line. What if there are two qualified people and one is a minority? It’s right to think that the minority would get hired in this hypothetical.
For some corporations, hiring a female minority is like striking gold in the equal opportunity mine. Perhaps there just aren’t many women studying to enter the petroleum engineering field to begin with and it’s not because of inequality.
The same thing can be said for universities. If I applied to Yale and didn’t get in, my thought would be instinctively that it was because of poor studies. The situation can be viewed differently through the lens of discrimination and affirmative action.
Literally any situation can be worded or shifted into being one where a party was treated unfairly.
Does an affirmative action ban in college admissions threaten the opportunities and enrollment of minorities?
Possibly. After Arizona banned the consideration of race, ethnicity and gender in college admissions, universities in the state saw a decrease in the number of minority students enrolled in undergraduate studies.
This is not to say that other states might not show different numbers, and it’s important to remember that when it comes to the definition of fairness and equality, there are more variables than one can count. After all, the numbers represent people.
When you look at people as percentages that need to be met, you demean what it means to be human. As we’ve learned from history, there is no greater discrimination than being viewed as less than human.
Affirmative action has overstayed its welcome, and it is too far gone for revisions. However, a better solution would be if decisions were made with a colorblind eye, a disregard of gender and based on capability.
Justin Stafford is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Walker, La.