Affirmative Action Should Be Allowed In Schools

Affirmative action is a policy that gives special considerations to groups that suffered from discrimination in the past. It was designed to balance the effect slavery and Jim Crow had on the African-American and other minority groups. Since its creation, the program has benefitted many members of the minority. However, the issue of whether affirmative action should be allowed or not allowed in the universities is a controversial one. While some argue that affirmative action should be allowed in the universities because it serves the purpose for which it is intended, and promotes diversity, others argue that affirmative action should not be allowed in the universities because it is no longer necessary, and it causes more harm than good. After …show more content…
The United States has experienced different forms of discriminations ranging from segregation of African-American and other minority groups to discrimination against women, and it should not encourage any policy or program that support any form of discrimination, whether positively or negatively. If a student is accepted into university based on his/her race or gender, it is a form of discrimination. Many students from the majority groups with best grades are not accepted into universities because many universities practice affirmative action that favors the students from minority groups in order to close the academic gap between the two groups. For example, there are white students that are academically disadvantaged, just like the minority students, because their parents could not afford to send them to the best high school. They are on the same level, academically, with the minority students, but they are denied admission because they are white. The negative effect of past discrimination, which includes disadvantage in higher education among minority students, has resulted in the creation of affirmative action to make up for and undo the effect. Such poor white students deserve to benefit from affirmative action, but they did not because they are white, and the policy is not designed for them. Such poor white students would continue to …show more content…
Affirmative action has benefitted a lot of people from the minority, but it also sends a wrong signal that the minority groups can only achieve success because of affirmative action. Among the minority groups are students who are talented and intelligent, and do not need any form of policy to sky-rocket them at the top of what they hope to achieve in life, but the credit for their accomplishment is given to affirmative action instead of the students who, through hard work and intelligence, attain such position. This does not only damage the mental and emotional well-being of such students; it also makes them question their own capabilities. For example, a minority student who worked hard to earn a spot in one of the prestigious universities in the country would be devastated if he/she found out that the university admitted him/her because of race or gender. Such student would be devastated because he/she is perceived as someone who got into such university because of preferential treatment. Because credit for such student’s hard work and determination goes to affirmative action, this would affect his/her performance in a negative way by taking away the zeal and desire for success, and for this reason, affirmative action should not be practiced in colleges.
Affirmative action harms students from both the minority and majority groups because it creates