Affirmative action is a failed attempt to end racial discrimination in the work place and educational institutions. It has created a whole new brand of racial discrimination. People who are better qualified for jobs are turned away because a company or school has to meet a certain quota. This kind of discrimination should be stopped. People should be judged on their accomplishments alone. Affirmative action advocates would have people believe that minorities are unable to compete academically with certain other groups. On the other hand, Jewish and Asian communities have flourished in today’s world, and they have both had historic battles against discrimination. Affirmative action attempts to generate equality through inequality, to end racism through racism, and to be fair by being unfair. I know if I was on the operating table about to have heart surgery, I would not want to look up to find an under-qualified doctor who met some quota about to perform the surgery. Any sensible person would want the most highly qualified doctor.
Racial diversity in colleges and the work place is crucial, but other non-discriminatory practices should be implemented to achieve this objective. Government officials should spend more time and money fixing the education system rather than flying to the moon, or sending land rovers to Mars. The billions of dollars that are spent on these types of activities should be funneled into education. In a recent survey conducted by the Houston Chronicle , the public was given the choice of spending money on programs like education and health care or on space research. Fifty-five percent said they wanted domestic programs. If more funds were spent on fixing the education problems in America things would instantly get better. One of the enormous benefits would be smaller classroom size; as a result, student’s grades would improve. This would allow teachers the capability to give more individual attention to those students that required it.
Affirmative action goes directly against the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown V. Board of Education. In that critical case, the Supreme Court declared unanimously that schools’ were violating the14th amendment , by separating students based solely on the color of their skin. If you hire one person or allow someone to attend a school on the basis of race, you are violating the Supreme Court’s landmark decision. The Supreme Court most recently weighed in on a case involving the University of Michigan Law School. Barbara Gutter, a white student, who was denied admission despite her qualifications. In her lawsuit, she alleged that she had been denied admission to the school because of her race so the institution could allow minority students with lower grade point averages than hers to attend. The Supreme Court ruled that the university could not award twenty points towards admission based on someone’s race; however, they could use race as a factor when applying to the university’s law school . The debate on this issue intensified in January of 2003 when President Bush, who opposed this type of affirmative action, stated, " I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education, but the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed."
In a perfect world, race would never come into play when applying for a job or attempting to gain admission to a university. Unfortunately, we do not live in that type of world. There will always be people who only see others by the color of their skin, their religious choices, or anything else that makes a person “different”. Affirmative action does not solve this problem; it adds to it. Affirmative action is a way of gaining something in life by race alone, which, in fact, is what affirmative action originally set out to combat. Using race as a deciding factor in any decision is racism in its’ most simplistic form. Affirmative action is a failed attempt to bring diversity to the workplace and universities. Allowing universities and employers to hand-pick potential employees or students based on race is wrong and will reverse any progress that has been made in this country regarding race relations.
Works Cited
1 Lester, Will. "Most want money spent on Earth" Houston Chronicle online 13 Jan.
2004 .
Warren, Earl Chief Justice. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483.17 May. 1954
< http://www2.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/historic/query=[group+347+u!2Es!2E+483!3A]^[group+citemenu!3A]^[level++case+citation!3A]^[group+notes!3A]/doc/{@1}/hit_headings/words=4/hits_only? >
3 O'Reilly, Bill. “The Supreme Court Weighs in on Affirmative Action”. 24 Jun. 2003
4 King ,John ,Dana Bash, and Kelli Arena. “Bush criticizes university quota system”. CNN.com.
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