The Senate Apologizes for Slavery and Jim Crow Laws — But Why?
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The problem with affirmative action is that you risk excluding equally (if not more) qualified whites and (in some instances) Asian students just to achieve a racially diverse student population. That’s unfair.
Most Asian students don’t need affirmative action. We typically score high enough to be admitted to most places. Some states have an Asian population around 4%, yet their most prestigious university
will feature around 20-40% Asian students. We’re supposed to make up about 20% of all medical field, although our overall population in this country is 4,5% (at the top of my head). Hindus, muslims, and Jews also well represented, at least proportional to their overall population.
As a black person, you should realize that at heart, affirmative action is more about increasing representations of Latinos and blacks, and less about a general “minority” empowerment. Those two groups typically score lower in tests and struggle in school. I’m not suggesting that they’re inherently disadvantaged. But Asians often come from cultures that are obsessed about academics (you have to take entrance exams for HIGH SCHOOL in some countries), and they carry over their intense focus on studying to the states.
Not all minorities have same interests and performance levels, at college level or otherwise. You don’t see too many Asians in basketball programs or anything related to English lit and writing. In my MFA writing program, I was one of two Asians in a class size around of maybe 60. That’s not because the English dept. is biased towards Asians. We tend to prefer the field of science, medicine, and law.
Affirmative action can’t diversify all aspects of college. The admissions people won’t arbitrarily admit underqualifed Latinos to pharmacy programs just for the sake of diversity – that major is HARD. AA might bring in an additional 10-15% more minorities who were probably qualified to begin with. Meanwhile, it won’t save vast amount of poor, struggling minorities who might have a chance at a junior college that’s really a glorified high school for adults.
