Negative Consequences of Affirmative Action in Education Sphere

The dictionary defines “affirmative action” as an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women. The term “affirmative action was first used by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 as a “method of redressing discrimination that had persisted in spite of civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees.” In theory, affirmative action makes sense, it tries to level the playing field so that minority groups have the same opportunities, especially with jobs and education. Colleges and universities have some practices and policies that try to increase areas such as race, gender, sexuality, and nationality that are underrepresented. Colleges should ban the use of affirmative action so that race and gender don’t count towards enrollment. While it is understandable why affirmative action is a thing, it is not fair to discriminate against a group of people in favor of another group. Colleges should ban affirmative action because of how it uses reverse discrimination, and how it uses race as a factor in admissions.

One reason that colleges should ban affirmative action is because of how it uses reverse discrimination. What is reverse discrimination? Reverse discrimination is the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously. For example, in 1973, Allan Bakke applied to UC Davis but did not get accepted. At the time UC Davis had two admission programs, the regular admission program, and the special admission program. Under the regular admission program, if the applicant had less than a 2.5-grade point average, they were rejected. Under the special admission program, the applicant did not have to meet the 2.5-grade point average cutoff. Allan Bakke’s grade point average was 3.46, which qualifies for both admission programs. Bakke applied to UC Davis in 1973 and in 1974 but was rejected both times even though his qualifications, including his college GPA and test scores, exceeded those of any of the minority students admitted in the two years that his applications were rejected. Even though Allan Bakke had obviously qualified for both admission programs, and had better qualifications than other applicants that got accepted, he was denied admission because he was not a minority.

Another reason that colleges should ban affirmative action is because of how it wrongfully uses race and other factors that applicants can not control in the admissions process. It is unethical for colleges to use things that applicants can not control in their admissions process. Whether or not an applicant gets in should be based on strictly grade point averages and test scores. According to a “Pew Research Center” survey, “73% of Americans say colleges and universities should not consider race or ethnicity when making decisions about student admissions.” In the same survey, 93% of Americans think that high school grades should be a factor, and also 88% of Americans think that standardized test scores should be a factor as well.

I think that if affirmative action continues to be used in colleges and universities, then applicants that should have gotten into college but couldn’t because they were not a minority, will continue to be discriminated against. To solve the problem that affirmative action tries to fix by using reverse discrimination, and factors that applicants can’t control such as race, colleges, and universities need to take the race part out of the applications and only allow people in based on things they can control such as grade point averages and test scores.