When you were a child, do you ever think about college? However, there is affirmative action for ethnicities and genders. What is affirmative action you ask? Affirmative action measures the continuation efforts in the United States to cure discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities and women (http://usa.usembassy.de/classroom/affirmativeaction.htm). Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream. A dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Also he had a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood (http://www.americanrhetoric.com). This dream is not being seen in parts of the United States of America. Discrimination is such an enormous target in America. Yes I believe in affirmative action, but I believe it should be based on the person and conditions, income, and financial aid and not on gender.

Several have quarreled on whether or not we should have affirmative action or not. I have to correspond and contradict that opinion. Why do we need affirmative action? In 1955 only 4.9 percent of colleges had blacks. During the next five years the percent towered up, but by 1965 it went down (http://usa.usembassy.de/classroom/affirmativeaction.htm). Now it is slowly climbing up. There are many people who live in poor conditions, and they can’t get a good enough education. Johnathan Kozol says in his book that in East St. Louis, “Of sixty-six cities in Illinois, East St. Louis ranks first in fetal death, first in premature birth, and third in infant death…running in the streets, air that has been fouled by the local plants, the high lead levels noted in soil, poverty, lack of education, crime, dilapidated housing, insufficient health care, unemployment. Hospital care is deficient too. There is no place to have a baby” (Kozol 1). The infant death rate is increasing in East St. Louis because the government won’t support them. Affirmative action wouldn’t have to pay for school and get stuff they needed. Don’t they need affirmative action to support them?

One’s financial aid should help them get into college as well. In East St. Louis, “The daily food expenditure in East St. Louis is two dollars and forty cents for one child and the under immunization of young children” (Kozol 1). They don’t receive enough money for food and immunization for them, and life is dangerous in East St. Louis. People get sickness from sewages outside there houses and barely have room to breath through their lungs. Financial aid could help them get to a good college.

Affirmative action is an action that helps those who tend to suffer from race, ethnicity, or women. In some ways people do not need affirmative action but in some ways they do. We need to realize that getting into college is tough. Colleges not only look at your SAT or ACT but also your background information. You decide whether we should keep affirmative action or not. Do what you think is better for you and others?