Simone Forbes
813
11/4/21
Affirmative action is a set of procedures designed to eliminate unlawful discrimination between job applicants, fix the results of prior discrimination, and prevent discrimination in the future. Colleges should retain affirmative action as criteria for admissions because it could help achieve the equality that we want and let minorities such as black people and Hispanic people be more represented in colleges. Affirmative action can be a resolution to discrimination in college admissions.
Colleges should retain affirmative action because students of color are underrepresented in colleges as white people are. Also because diversity can help the community and it can help achieve a society of equal chances and opportunities. For example in ‘5 Reasons to Support Affirmative Action in College Admissions’, “Racially integrated classrooms can reduce students’ bias, improve satisfaction and intellectual self-confidence, and enhance leadership skills.” This shows that affirmative action can avoid conflict in classrooms involving discrimination. Another example from the article ‘Should Colleges Use Affirmative Action?’ states, “At UC Berkley, the number of Black students admitted dropped from 562 to 191 after the school stopped using race as one aspect of admissions.” This shows that not retaining race as an aspect of admissions allows students of color to be underrepresented which doesn’t help fight the discrimination in college admissions. In addition in ‘Trump revokes Obama's race-based college admissions guidance’,” As the Supreme Court has recognized, diversity has benefits for all students," one Obama government document stated. "Today's students must be prepared to succeed in a diverse society and an increasingly global workforce." This shows that affirmative action is necessary to prepare people for the future.
You could argue that colleges shouldn’t use affirmative action for admissions but if we don’t have affirmative action it could become the same type of society it always has been and there won’t be any change nor progress. People of color will stay with external conflicts such as discrimination that could cause internal conflicts. Using affirmative action can propel change but not using it won’t propel anything. It will stay the same; it will be our standardized society of inequality and unfairness. In conclusion, affirmative action should be used as a criterion for admissions in colleges.