Affirmitive Action

                I believe that affirmative action was created for good causes, but I feel that it has an effect other than what it was meant to do. It was created to give minorities a better chance in college admissions and create a more diverse learning environment. When I first heard of it, it sounded like a good idea, but after more research and examination, I realized that it doesn’t work the way it should. I feel that affirmative action unintentionally hurts white students. Schools that are looking for minorities to enrich the educational process prefer people of different colors over minorities in the white race. For example, take two different people from a poor neighborhood who both apply to the same college. This college is mostly white, but they are trying to diversify the learning environment. One of these students is white and the other is black. Imagine that they have the similar grades and decent comments from their teachers. The white students grades where minutely better. They took the same amount of classes at the same level. They both received similar scores on the act, but the white student’s score was a little higher. The admissions committee reviews their applications and chooses the black student even though the white student’s score was higher. The college did not intend to cheat the better student out of his college education, but in fact, they did. The black student was accepted in order to help diversify the university. I think that a university should focus on accepting the best students in order to have the best level of academics and encourage better education. I feel that the black student could have a different point of view from some of the white students, but so would the white student from the example. It is true that these two students would have different experiences because of color, but I feel that color should not matter to universities. I understand the importance of having diversity in a university, but I feel that academic excellence outweighs the need for diversity. I agree that when affirmative action was first created, it helped level the playing field for all races, but I think that it is out dated now. I believe that every race has a more equal chance of success in modern times and that affirmative action is actually hurting students. I think that academics should come first and diversity second.