College admission’s outdated affirmative action breeds racism

Pursuing diversity is obviously a positive thing, but we have a problem. “Affirmative Action” has unintentionally unleashed a new breed of racism. Though colleges don’t particularly have exclusive motives, choosing whether to admit a student based on their racial background is inherently racist. Not only is it wrong; it’s completely unnecessary. We at The Advocate believe ethnicity is irrelevant when it comes to education. People from all races and creeds are capable of achieving 4.0s, acing SATs, and enrolling in prestigious institutions.

People who are less likely to receive a higher education are those in the lower economic class and in impoverished communities. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly half of all new, low-income high school graduates  were enrolled in college in 2012. This group does happen to include more minorities. The thing is, minorities lack the money, not the ideal set of genes. This is why colleges should choose among applicants based on merit and needs only.

This is the issue with Affirmative Action. Some students who are not of a particular minority are rejected when the college needs to meet a certain quota of said minority. These students have done everything right for a ticket into a respected college but because they are not the preferred minority, someone else who put in less effort or success gets in instead. That’s unethical but that isn’t the only problem. If a white male gets rejected from Harvard, he will likely be admitted into another school.  While not all of us on The Advocate board believes Affirmative Action is negative (it gives minorities a chance they wouldn’t otherwise have) the real problem is that the policy could be fueling racism.

It was created for a great purpose, to lift the minorities out of crippling economic tragedy and to help overcome devastating racism. However, times have changed and the crux of disadvantages today stem mostly from economic instabilities. Yet, we are still clinging to our old demon: racism. Affirmative action has outlived its usefulness and is now creating a detriment to society.

It has become racist because it feeds the racial stigma monster. We are basically saying: Blacks are not as likely to go to college, so we need more Black students to look like we’re doing things right. Oh, but we don’t need more Asians, because they will take up too much space reserved for our Hispanic students.

That sounds ridiculous, but it’s happening. Harvard University has now been sued for capping the amount of Asian-Americans who can attend. And the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been sued for inappropriate race-based admissions practices.

Saying Blacks or Hispanics are less likely to attend college because they are Black or Hispanic is equivalent to saying they are more likely to commit crime because of their race. Many of them are jailed because of unjust profiling. The notion that every white cop is  simply out to shoot any African American they see is ridiculous, as well. These crude types of profiling damage communities and spur anger and riots such as those occurring in Ferguson.

 When we separate students by race, we’re pouring everyone’s financial problems, everyone’s disabilities, and everyone’s work ethic into the race bucket. What we need to do is abolish stereotypes and get to the root of the problem, the aforementioned income inequality. Start restoring poor communities. Start saying: “You have a financial barrier, let us help you.” But race has nothing to do with a person’s ability to rise above their hindrances.

Don’t get us wrong: We believe there should be a wide variety of cultural and diverse groups and activities. There should be more sister-school programs. There should be more public outreach events to encourage profiled minorities to step up their game.

But we need to tell people that success lies within themselves, not on their name tag or what they marked on their application. We shouldn’t have to identify our race on college applications, or else people will continue to feel anxious about checking their ethnicity into a box.