How to address modern racial inequality: is affirmative action just?

[CNHander]

How to address modern racial inequality: is affirmative action just?


I applied to college a few months ago. Here are some of my qualifications:

* Graduated third in my graduating class of 800
* Logged over 350 hours of community service
* Scored a 2280 on the SAT
* Eagle Scout
* Senior Patrol Leader of a large troop
* Many extracurricular activities

However, I was rejected from Stanford. The rejection alone was not a surprise at all, because there are many other very well qualified applicants like myself. Also, Stanford admitted one of my close friends, an African-American. In comparison, he has a somewhat underwhelming record; he's under 85th percentile gradewise and has no outside activities to put on a resume aside from band. Stanford proudly proclaims that it practice some form of affirmative action. Yes, I'm white. What the heck is this? Do we, as a culture, really need to have equality of outcome for all races, rather than simply equality of opportunity? Should universities, employers, and other organizations really be so pressured to appear politically correct that they slip into reverse discrimination?

I may be inferring too much from too little information, but I don't that's likely; what factor, other than race, could have admitted him and rejected me?

Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. are all very serious problems in America, as evidenced by the Presidential election, but how is affirmative action or anything like it ethical or just? Both racism and affirmative action influence someone's judgment on the basis of prejudice, that certain groups of the population should be given extreme abnormal disdain or privilege for something they had no control over. Instead of fighting prejudice with prejudice, wouldn't it be better to address the root causes of the problem? That is, we should address harmful internet sites, inadequate education leading people to mis-infer that correlation implies causation, certain environments and subcultures that encourage racism in the young, and of course ensuring equality of opportunity for as many people as possible.

But enforcing racial diversity for diversity's sake behind force of law, institutional ruling, or simply underlying prejudice is wrong, for the same reason that enforcing a single "pure race" behind the KKK or a Hitler is wrong; diversity or non-diversity are not underlying principles that should be appealed to. Rather, justice, and individual merits, skills, accomplishments, and talents are what should be taken into consideration.

Otherwise, if we as a culture continue to judge people based simply on what group they can be classified into, we will just become ever more divided, which will further unjust prejudice, to the detriment of the nation.


Oh, and to presuppose an objection, I'm not looking for sympathy. I got into a good school anyway, and besides, my own personal circumstances mean very little in the broad scheme of things. Rather, I'm looking for someone to give a good logical defense of why affirmative action may be a just policy. I surely wouldn't want to persist in a false belief without giving anyone the opportunity to convince me otherwise :)

Some may think of criticizing me for not explaining how hundreds of years of slavery, systematic discrimination, and racism can be addressed, so here are some positive suggestions. The way I see it, affirmative action tries to address the effects, which are lower income levels and higher unemployment, rather than the causes, which is generally lower educational potential due to systematic inequality/racism. Since AA tries to fix the effect rather than the result, it is only as permanent as long as the employee manages to hold onto the job, which may be short, especially given the current economic situation. Since AA doesn't treat the causes, it would have to be practiced close to forever to retain its effectiveness, because as soon as it stops, we're very close to the original situation again.

The solution is not to say or make people act as if a particular African-American's qualifications are greater than they actually are. The solution is to make it so that African-Americans' qualifications ARE the same as others, on average. I suggest that, rather than treating the symptom through affirmative action, we treat the disease itself. For instance, in my state, funds for local schools come from taxing the surrounding properties. If one lives in a poor, primarily African-American neighborhood, your school will also be quite poor. This is obviously an idiotic policy, which serves only to further inequality among students and schools. In addition, I have heard that some subsections of African-American culture, greatly influenced by popular rappers, is somewhat self-depreciating and does not carry all that much respect for the most important thing, education, nor so much for getting a job and working. I don't know how correct these rumors about some subsets of AA culture is, but it may be something to help fix. I don't know. Or, there exists in my neighborhood an organization which seeks to pair up poor, typically unmotivated minorities from unprivileged neighborhoods with a more well-to-do mentor, who helps them with schoolwork, encourages them and gives them advice, and most importantly, helps them to become motivated to fully attend college. We need more programs like that, which help future families to fervently seek success on their own, without any outside help necessary.

Better to correct and encourage those, which help to permanently treat the causes of inequality, than affirmative action, which is temporary, unjust, and shortsighted.


To make an analogy, A and B are twin brothers and have to take a test tomorrow. Imagine that B was assigned a lot of homework for other classes and so didn't study much for the test, and got a B. Brother A has more time to study and gets an A. Brother B doesn't know the material very well, so does not deserve an A. However, that happened because he was denied equal opportunity; he had little time to study for the test. Would the just thing be to give him an A regardless, even though he doesn't know the material well? Of course not. The just thing would be to make sure he doesn't get much homework from other classes on test days. Same for AA; if one is less qualified one shouldn't be as likely to get a job. The solution is not to give them the job; the solution is to provide for equal opportunity so that the subjects would be equally qualified next time, on average.


I also forgot to mention this at the top: other important components of an application are recommendations and the "creative essays." Some of it might be explained by my not doing that well on those. It's hard to make something "creative" when there isn't really a concrete topic or known concrete expectations... at least, that's how it is for me. That's why I like forums or regular assignments much better. But my personal experience doesn't matter; my point is that affirmative action is not right.

Really sorry for such a long post but it's a complicated issue.