This past Monday, the trial against Harvard on the topic of affirmative action, a system that tries to promote underrepresented minorities, began. A group of Asian Americans that were rejected from Harvard argue that Harvard sets a restrictive quota for its Asian-American students and that the school holds Asian-American students to a higher level than other racial groups, like in manipulating parts of the application that are hard to quantify. With the plaintiffs wanting a more racial neutral process, this case could affect the future of affirmative action. Harvard denies discrimination and argues that without affirmative action there would be a decline in diversity which is important to students' education. The rest of the Ivy League schools have comes to Harvard's in defense of maintaining race as a factor in admissions.
Do you think affirmative action should be upheld?
Is diversity important?
What other solution could be considered?
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/us/harvard-affirmative-action-asian-americans.html
It is true that all students should be judged based on equal basis. However, it is also important to realize that Harvard has to keep up its reputation as an Ivy League school. A school would inevitably have unstable racial diversity. If you consider the amount of Asian students in any University, it is not hard to make an assumption that the majority of the school is comprised of Asians. The school is unable to appease every race and ethnicity, if they started restricting Whites, there would be uproar from the Whites and if they restricted Hispanics, there would be protests from the Hispanics. It should also be stated that there are many international transfer students in Harvard, therefore, there is a possibility that they are balancing the number of International Asian students and Asian American students
ReplyDeleteThe purpose behind creating affirmative action was to promote equality and racial diversity in schools. However, while this idea is good in theory, in practice it only serves as a platform for further discrimination based on race as well as the generalization of ethnicities. The main problem with affirmative action is that it groups people of the same race together and labels them all with a common stereotype. For example, people usually views Asians as extremely hard working, quiet, and strongly influenced by their parents, so admission officers expect them to get high test scores and grades. However, the stereotype for other minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics are that they are generally poorer and grow up in a community that places less emphasis on education and success, so high test scores are more impressive. The problem with this lies in the fact that not all Asians or hispanics follow these stereotypes and even when blacks and hispanics get into these elite universities, they do not garner the same amount of respect or prestige as a white or asian person.
ReplyDeleteDiversity in the sense that everyone is diverse in their personal strengths is important for a school. I, however, do not believe that diversity of race is important for a school. The purpose of schools is to educate and prepare students to do well in the workforce, and I believe this is best done by creating an environment where there is a diversity of talents, not just race.
A solution to promote equality is to have a blind application process where college cannot determine the race of an applicant by their name or their stated ethnicity. This makes the admission process more equal by more accurately identifying those who are actually less privilege as opposed to race. Students from poorer and less privileged backgrounds can still state their situation and gain an advantage in the admission process, but cannot use their race as a reason for why they are more qualified than another applicant.
While I do think diversity in race can be beneficial in learning about different cultures, I do not believe that it should be an important factor of admissions in a college or university. Like Jason said above, I think that having a diversity of interests is more important since it allows for a sharing of ideas and perspectives from different fields and subjects, leading to a richer educational experience. Rather than basing admission decisions on race, I think that everyone should be judged on the same level playing field, but still considered within their personal home and school circumstances and how much they took advantage of the opportunities they had. Colleges and universities should be looking for people that fit their school, academically and socially, regardless of race.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Jessica and Jason when they say that the application process should be race blind. If a person finds their most distinguishing quality to be their race or their ethnic history, then it can be written about in one's essays. This will make race an optional quality to write about rather than having to check off a box. I think this issue is really interesting considering other movements such as the feminist movement (particularly Me Too). In some cases I think that these movements have gone to such an extreme that it results in unintentional impacts. Nevertheless, I think it is vital to have a diverse community not based only on race but on varying experiences, qualities, socioeconomic status, etc.
ReplyDeleteI believe that affirmative action's main goal should be to give all students, no matter their background a chance to attend a top university. That being said, race is not a great determining factor for that. With the common stereotype that Caucasians and
ReplyDeleteAsians are wealthier while African Americans and Hispanics are poor, there are a lot of people that fall through the cracks. Should an Asian American student with a total family income of $20k and an African American Student with a total family income of $200,000 be judged purely off their race? Or perhaps their situation?
I believe that diversity on a campus is important to a certain extent. But changing admissions to support a diverse class of students is not affirmative action and hurts certain groups when done in excess.
Affirmative action was created as a means of compensating for circumstances that put some races at a disadvantage in college admissions. One hundred years ago, it may have been true that almost all Caucasians were better off than African-Americans and therefore more likely to place a strong emphasis on schooling and better able to afford schooling. The problem with affirmative action today is that not all members of a race fall into the rigid categories that affirmative action has placed them in. Today there are many African-American families that make far more money than Caucasian families, which renders affirmative action policies useless. Affirmative action still exists for a reason, however, and that's because as a whole, some racial minorities still lag far behind Caucasians in measures of intelligence such as SAT scores and GPA. Because some races are clearly still disadvantaged, it does not make sense to completely eliminate affirmative action policies. Instead race needs to be a smaller factor in college admissions and colleges should not set rigid racial quotas to fulfill. In the future, if racial differences in educational performance diminish, it may be possible to have race-blind admissions.
ReplyDeleteEmma Madgic
DeleteI think that affirmative actions, for the most part, does good for those that are disadvantaged by society. If you look at the ethnicity of people at these tops universities and the ethnic breakup of the US, you see that it is generally representative. This means that affirmative action is working by making college available to those who don't have the resources to compete with other applicants, without affirmative action. One thing that complicates this all is the lawsuit against Harvard and the information that has been released as a consequence of it. What we are seeing is that Harvard has been accepting applicants that may not have otherwise been admitted due their ability to provide money to Harvard and that Asian-American students are being selected against in the admission process and are required to have higher scores than other students. The process that they use to admit people who will give money is fundamentally wrong, but these colleges are businesses and money needs to come from somewhere. The issue with Asian-American students presents a sticky situation. Yes, it is important to offer students who would typically not have access to schools like Harvard admission, but it is not okay to disadvantage someone from attending a university for their race—that is racial discrimination. The way that this could potentially be solved is by taking into account the socio economic situation of the applicant rather than their race, since that is more likely an indicator of hardships in the application process. No matter what happens, it is evident that Harvard is going to have to make changes to the way it selects students if it want to save its public image.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that it is incredibly important to have diversity at a university in order to give a good example of what life it really like outside of the school. If the school was primarily one race then students would become close minded and not aware of the cultural diversity of our country and our world. However, as an asian american myself, it is difficult to hear that my race may actually have a large impact on my admissions into a college. While I wish I wasn't judged by my race as much as I am by my academics or personality, the truth is that I would rather end up at a university that is not one of the top ivies than a university that is primarily asian because I do highly value diversity.
ReplyDeleteAlthough affirmative action works unfairly towards certain groups of people, it is necessary to bring balance in a field that tends to be dominated by a particular class of people. For example, affirmative action allows for a woman to have a higher chance of getting into male-dominated fields such as engineering and a man to have a higher chance of getting into female-dominated fields such as nursing. It nurtures otherwise untapped potential in those who would've simply followed their stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteDiversity in colleges, or any schools for that matter, is extremely important. Working and living in a diverse community allows for increased growth and interaction with new ideas, cultures and an overall better college experience. College is the school most similar to the "real world," and living in a diverse environment will give students the tools and experience they need to better adjust in real life.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that affirmative action is important and should be upheld. Access to high quality education is critical for advancement, so making sure it's accessible to low income and vulnerable groups is a good way to ensure that historically disadvantaged minority groups (who are less likely to be able to get into schools such as Harvard on a purely meritocratic basis due to the systematic inequality of American education, among other factors) are able to become better represented in the upper echelons of society. Diversity is critical, not only because it's the right thing to do, but on a more practical level, having different groups of people represented allows for a greater diversity of opinions, allowing students to learn about people other than themselves, and prepare themselves for later in life where people are so vastly different. The problem is there aren't many other good solutions for maintaining diversity. Quota systems are bad because it's forced diversity in a way that minimizes qualities in students besides race (far more than this system), other systems that consider only the top performers in all schools regardless of district (which gets youth who are high performers, compared to their peers) are impractical because such a rigorous school does need to consider academic prowess, so affirmative action is currently the best fix of bad options to address a lack of diversity.
ReplyDeleteI personally think affirmative action was created to benefit and help the underrepresented minorities which is very important in a school setting and the real world. However, I believe that it is quite unfair for college admissions to hold certain races to a higher standard than other races and thus the application process should be blind. Everyone who qualifies should be accepted and people shouldn't be docked points just because of their race or to fit into the quota. Quota also is a big problem when it comes to college admissions because it forces students of the same race and sex to compete with one another, leading to more competition. I also do agree with Daniel that quota forces diversity and in the end school is for learning and colleges should be accepting people based on their intellectual abilities rather than just their race, sex, and economic status. I personally think a more fair way of helping the underrepresented go to college is to change affirmative action into a income based system where race is not involved. I think that it is more fair that we help people based on their income rather than just their race because no matter what race there are rich and there are poor.
ReplyDeleteThe competitiveness with Asian-Americans is prevalent when getting into college. This isn't an issue of racism, this is an issue of keeping schools diverse. Asian-Americans are defiantly held to a higher standard by colleges and universities, but this is simply because of their competitive academic nature. I believe that diversity in schools is extremely important because it prepares students more for the "real world." It would also look bad for a top school like Harvard to have a majority of only one race attending their school.
ReplyDeleteAsian-Americans might perform better scholastically on average, and that is, in theory, the metric that colleges use to admit students, but it is not so simple. Diversity is a very important part of a healthy learning environment, and certain controversial steps must be taken to ensure that it is preserved. Schools must artificially foster diversity in their community by balancing admittance between racial groups. Unfortunately, if one ethnic group tends to be more qualified than others, applicants of that group must be judged on different standards in order to prevent homogeneity in the student body. In an ideal world, diversity would occur naturally in institutions, but colleges do not exist in an ideal world, and they have no choice but to adjust standards for different ethnic groups or else risk sacrificing balanced diversity.
ReplyDeleteDiversity is crucial in a learning environment. Race-blind admissions will create a disproportionate student body in the university than out in the real world. Although, different racial groups will be held to different standards, it is worth it for the benefit of society. My dad, a white male in the finance world, is becoming the second or third choice because the other candidates for the positions are females, minorities, or both. Affirmative action exists in the workplace as well, and if we abolish it at the college level, the situation won't get easier for some racial groups coming out of college. It is a rule that the board of a company needs to have at least one woman. Even if this woman may be less qualified than other candidates, I believe she should get the job. Diversity is necessary, and the more variety of people and experiences, the better the performance of the group. Affirmative Action should be upheld because it enforces diversity in environments in which diversity wouldn't occur naturally. The diversity in race, experiences, and test scores would provide for a better learning environment over all. I, personally, would love to go to a college where not everyone is just like me.
ReplyDeleteI believe that diversity is very very important in a learning environment such as college and probably even more important at a university due to the fact that majority of students live on or near the campus. Diversity will allow the students to meet people like themselves, but also bond and experience other cultures. Affirmative action allows underrepresented minorities to blossom and have a better chance at getting into a university, especially if they are the first in their family to attend a university. However. affirmative action could also hinder potential students based on their ethnicity which is not necessarily fair. In conclusion, affirmative action allows students to experience what the "real world" is like--full of diversity and different cultures. In the "real world" as others have mentioned, candidates for jobs are also selected based on creating a diverse workplace.
ReplyDeleteI think that diversity, especially on a school campus, is important, but it all depends on who is applying. If all of the Asian-American students are above average and are easily meeting the standards for Harvard admission, then yes I think they should be allowed admission. There are many factors which come into play for college admission and this is one of them. At the same time, I don't think everyone needs to go to Harvard because if they already meet the requirements for Harvard, they can probably go to another Ivy League or top rated school. Another solution for Harvard could be to take race off of their application because without it the applicants are all looked at fairly the same.
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