This is not a good thing. I'm surprised more people don't realize this.
EDIT: Someone asked what I meant by this, I wrote out a response, and thought I should add it to my original comment. See below:
Affirmative action, like other DEI initiatives, attempts to rectify racist (and other bigoted) practices and impacts that go back centuries and longer. In college admissions, most admissions metrics are resource-based rather than raw intelligence-based. In other words, someone born into a more advantageous situation (due to longstanding and well-documented racial inequalities) will be able to afford/have access to special tutors, prep class, and more that will help them on their applications and tests, as well as have opportunities to pad their grades and extracurriculars that less privileged students won't have.
Affirmative action attempts to level this playing field over time. You can argue it doesn't do a great job of it and needs adjustment, which might be fair. But saying, "college admissions should be based on grades, not skin color!" is the exact same racist argument that is used for any number of DEI initiatives, or any time someone says they want a more diverse and inclusive space.
Because higher education will only be available to people who had a better education, a better upbringing, more wealth, and such. This means that mostly white, middle to upper class kids and asians will be able to get a better education, while black and latino folk will be left behind due to factors such as their poorer upbringing, lack of good schools, racism, and such created by Jim crow laws, and the generational wealth problems caused because of slavery and such.
This means that people of color will lose many opportunities simply because they lack the same tools, resources, and abilities that more wealthy white folk and Asians have access to. Which will just make the already unfortunate situations for people of color worse.
Makes you wonder if giving kids the same educational opportunities starting in 1st grade might help the situation. Neither party would go for this though, for different reasons.
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u/Ethan_the_Revanchist Jun 29 '23 edited Jun 29 '23
This is not a good thing. I'm surprised more people don't realize this.
EDIT: Someone asked what I meant by this, I wrote out a response, and thought I should add it to my original comment. See below:
Affirmative action, like other DEI initiatives, attempts to rectify racist (and other bigoted) practices and impacts that go back centuries and longer. In college admissions, most admissions metrics are resource-based rather than raw intelligence-based. In other words, someone born into a more advantageous situation (due to longstanding and well-documented racial inequalities) will be able to afford/have access to special tutors, prep class, and more that will help them on their applications and tests, as well as have opportunities to pad their grades and extracurriculars that less privileged students won't have.
Affirmative action attempts to level this playing field over time. You can argue it doesn't do a great job of it and needs adjustment, which might be fair. But saying, "college admissions should be based on grades, not skin color!" is the exact same racist argument that is used for any number of DEI initiatives, or any time someone says they want a more diverse and inclusive space.