Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Affirmative Action Helping Minorities?
Affirmative action has been known to even the plane field between the minorities and the majority. A problem that comes from this is that the majority are affected by having an advantage over the minority. This isn't always the case and affirmative action can also be seen as an excuse for diversity. This allows schools to "improve" on their diversity without making it sound bad. It makes minorities seem as they can't reach the same achievements as the majority. Personally, as a Latino, I feel that affirmative action is just taking pity on me which isn't something that I want nor what other minorities want. This reinforces the idea of stereotypes and is completely contradicting what we want in a society. As well, it lowers the chances for the majority to enter a school because some schools are looking for "diversity" since they have too much of the majority. One way to decrease affirmative action is by funding financial aid programs for minorities and low-income students. In LAHS, a program offered to first-generation students, AVID is decreasing the factor that minorities can't achieve the same levels as the majority.
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Nice article! I didn't come to think that funding financial aid programs can affect affirmative action. One problem that comes from this is that not all schools have these kind of programs so affirmative action is heavily affecting them.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! It was really interesting to see how people within minority groups actually view affirmative action(a policy that is targeted on helping them). You make a very good point about how affirmative action doesn't really address the root of the problem – minorities receiving fewer educational resources due to financial and societal disadvantage – and instead seems to focus on improving the self-image of universities that promote diversity. Curious about the effectiveness of affirmative action, I found an article (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/sunday/does-affirmative-action-do-what-it-should.html) that discusses another problem with the policy: the mismatch theory. This is a theory that affirmative action actually hinders minorities by sending them into academic scenarios they are unprepared for when they could be thriving and learning better elsewhere. Whether or not this theory holds ground, it still highlights the issue that policies are not targeting the root of the problem: aiding first-generation, low-income, and minority students so that they are given equal opportunities/resources to succeed before it comes to college admissions.
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ReplyDeleteCool! interesting how you state that despite your Latino heritage you believe schools shouldn't permit affirmative action. I agree with that myself as I'm also Latino. I don't understand why race and background are required to be reported on when applying to college. The only solution I can think of completely disregarding race/background and only judging applicants on their personal statements and numbers. Also by expanding financial aid programs to be offered at every high school to help in getting minorities through high school and off to college. Until then, despite what you have said, I do think affirmative action does help people in some cases regardless of allowing equal chances to all.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.npr.org/2018/11/01/658960740/how-americans-feel-about-affirmative-action-in-higher-education
This is especially interesting to me because it is college application season and I hadn't really thought too much about affirmative action until this post. I really liked how you not only discussed your opinion on the matter but also offered a possible solution in order to mitigate the negative connotations that arise in affirmative action for minority groups. I agree with you in that I believe universities place too much emphasis on ethnicity that they often will use that as their main deciding factor when admitting students which does reinforce the stereotype that it is impossible for minorities to rise to the same level as the majority when they aren't provided assistance. This idea that minorities should get "a pass" when going through the competitiveness of college applications creates double standards that are unfair and that many students will then use to try to "cheat the system". Your suggestion to create more financial aid programs or more scholarship opportunities specifically for minorities would be a smart way to make college decisions more equal for all students while still aiding students in terms of the (continually rising) costs of tuition. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very interesting point because it addresses one view of the minorities who are the recipients of affirmative action policies: that often these boosts that colleges give to minorities undermines the success that they actually achieve. However, it's important to remember that without policies like affirmative action, in places like UC Berkeley, Asian-Americans are disproportionately enrolled compared to the population, and black and latino minorities are historically low there. Ultimately, while a pure meritocracy is the only way people will ever view college admissions as "fair", it is necessary to keep the existing system of affirmative action until a better alternative can be found.
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