Shouldn’t schools choose their applicants because of their merits rather than their ethnicity? This is not so. Many schools in America choose their applicants with the process of affirmative action. For instance:
Stanford has been discriminating in favor of racial minorities in admissions, hiring, tenure, contracting and financial aid. But only recently has the University been forced to rethink these policies in the face of an emerging public debate over affirmative action (Sacks and Thiel 1).
As shown by Sacks and Thiel, even Stanford is choosing its candidates through affirmative action. Is it really fair to the student who has the better test scores, to be chosen over someone who had lower test points than them? Schools are supposed to judge and look at the candidate’s
by scholar achievements rather than base them on their nationality and sex. What if you were the person that was not accepted? One would probably be furious due to all the time wasted in taking SAT preparation courses.

Affirmative action gives an incorrect definition of diversity. David Sacks says, “But if ‘diversity’ were really the goal, then the preferences would be given on the basis of unusual characteristics, not on the basis of race” (6). Diversity among students is not meant by the color of one’s skin. It doesn’t seem fair that a student can get into a high-class college because of the color of their skin. We are all equal no matter what the color of our skin is. That was what God intended when He created us, to be equal. Diversity shouldn’t be about races and sexes. Schools that are trying to diversify their campuses with affirmative action are going to have to deal with a lot of race issues among the student community. I think that diversity is important for schools, but the way that the administrators are going at it, makes it wrong by choosing their applicants because of race or sex. Doing this to students is wrong.

Affirmative action will put a serious tension on race issues. The minority might not feel as if they fit in with the other kids. Minorities in school will feel this tension when they are on campus. Groups of minorities will band together because they might feel left out by the majority. David Sacks and Peter Thiel say that, “... Stanford has created racially segregated dormitories, racially segregated freshman orientation programs, racially segregated graduations and curricular requirements in race theory and gender studies” (5). Because of affirmative action, curricular and
academic programs are being segregated. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to one-day see a colorblind society. What happened to that dream? Affirmative action only causes more racism among the community. At Stanford, the student body has divided themselves among the campus.

Supporters of affirmative action say that it helps destroy the issue of racism in school communities. I think that it actually puts an even heavier toll on the subject of racism because the majority might not accept the children from the minority. The majority may bring up the subject that the minority only got in because of their ethnicity. Slowly, the children would become split from each other. By trying to achieve diversity for the students, the administrators achieved something else, and that would be a segregated campus. Don’t we all love a segregated campus? By using affirmative action, that is what you are basically asking to the students. That is why I personally do not think that affirmative action is a good idea.


The supporters also think that affirmative action will help the minority by evening out the playing field. Wouldn’t that only hurt the minority? The minorities would have to catch up on academic activities that the majorities have already covered. A lot of work must be put in so that the minority can catch up to the majority academically. They must learn tons of information in a short amount of time. That could lead the student to stress and maybe even depression. Would you want that for the all the minorities in the United States?

Even still today, people are still debating the fact of affirmative action. I’ll let you choose your side. But before you do, think about this. What if you were the student that was not admitted into the college of your dreams because a minority student with lower standardized testing scores was admitted over you? I think that with affirmative action, racism will always remain within our society.