Erin Rogers

The term affirmative action did and still does bring a lot of controversy. Affirmative
action is used in order to create diversity and reverse discrimination. It is applied
especially when it comes to education and employment opportunities. Some believe it is
truly helping individuals and society as a whole, while others disagree and are against it.
Although the topic has been debated and brought up in several legal cases, the
question of what affirmative action is really doing to society and whether it is helping or
hurting still arises today.
When the Kennedy Administration first established the words affirmative action
in the mid1900s, scholars and other important figures brought negative attention to the
idea claiming that people arent actually benefitting from it. Even Clarence Thomas, who
was helped from affirmative action himself, defended the opposing side and said that
students are being placed below their education level. (Slater) This brings up the theory
of mismatch, which Dan Slater defines as the idea that affirmative action can harm
those its supposed to help by placing them at schools in which they fall below the
median level of ability and therefore have a tough time." (Slater)To try and prove that
mismatch does exist and that it is hurting the minority Richard H. Sander, a law
professor at UCLA, conducted a study. He followed a number of black law school
students, some who went to their first choice school (the elite school) and some who
went to their second choice, and took note of how they did on the bar exam (an exam
after law school). His data concluded that more students who went to their first choice

school failed the test than those who went to their second choice school. This was proof
for him and others that affirmative action is not always helping the minority. Students
that are getting accepted into these prestigious schools like UCLA with race in mind are
not always benefiting due to the fact that their education level is not where it should be
for that specific school. If they are not at a high enough level they have a greater
chance of not doing well in class and ultimately not succeeding in the future.
Although mismatching can be one big negative aspect of affirmative action
supporters n claim that it is fair and merit isn't outweighing race. According to The Office
of Equal Opportunities Program, all decisions must be based on merit and accepting a
person based on race, national origin/ethnicity, sex, or anything other than
qualifications is generally prohibited. (Top Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions)
Everyone must meet all education requirements in order to be admitted. They explain
that affirmative action is comprised of four steps including the utilization analysis, the
workforce analysis, the goal and timetables, and the narrative does. Within these four
sections they look at the demographics of a certain university and determine if a specific
group is "underutilized" meaning that they are fewer than expected. Affirmative action
does not involve the use quotas but rather sets goals to reach. These "placement goals"
are reached by trying to make sure that all, including the minority and majority, are
looked at equally. Based on these standards all students are given an equal chance of
being accepted or hired. (Top Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions)
However, two woman went up against the University of Michigan to try and prove
that this isnt the case and that affirmative action isnt fair. They stated that because they

were white they were denied admission into the school. There were two separate cases,
one was Gratz v. Bollinger which was aimed at the undergraduate admissions process
and the other was Grutter v. Bollinger which was directed at the law school. In the case
dealing with the law school admissions, Grutter lost the argument. The admissions
process for the law school was not declared unconstitutional because there was no
quota or point system set in place and the university was looking at race as only one
small portion of a students application. The court agreed with the school that diversity
within the classroom is good but it was made clear that affirmative action could only be
used for this reason and should not determine a students admittance into the university.
Unlike the case with Grutter and the University of Michigan, Gratz lost the
argument. It was proven that the university was using a point system where a student
had to earn 100 points to be accepted. The downfall was that people with a different
ethnicity got an additional 20 points. This made it clear that affirmative action was
violating the Equal Protection Clause because not everyone was being looked at the
same and given an equal chance to get into the school. Even with lower academic
levels, those of a different race other than white had a greater chance of being
accepted. Aside from this specific case, statistics were used to see if race had a true
impact on students getting admitted into a school as well. Data from the Association of
American Medical Colleges showed that Hispanic students with average GPAs and
average MCAT scores were about twice as likely to be accepted to medical school
compared to white applicants" and black students were "2.44 times more likely than
white applicants. (Perry) Ethnicity is playing a role in admissions according to this
specific data and it is outweighing academics to a certain extent.

After this Supreme Court decision in 2003 many presidents of colleges became
concerned that affirmative action is on its way to becoming banned. Statistics have
shown that races of the minority are "underrepresented" (Hamacek) and stopping
affirmative action will result in a less diverse student body. Data reveals that a diverse
classroom widens students views of the world and its differences. Being surrounded by
people with differing races, beliefs and religions enriches everyones educational
experience (Hamacek) and can alter their perspectives in a positive way. (Hamacek)
More than half of universities use affirmative action in order to add different groups of
people to their schools and without it this diversity within schools can quickly decline.
Also, without affirmative action some believe that racial stereotypes within society
will become the norm. Many racial issues have been linked to the killings of black
teenagers within the last several years including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and
Jordan Davis. In one experiment, white people were timed to see how long it took them
to "categorize positive and negative words after experiencing a visual cue of a white or
black person." (Wicks-Lim) The results showed that participants took longer to respond
when a black person had a positive word than when a white person did. This pattern
backs up the idea that minds in society associate negative attributes with people of
different races other than white. Therefore, supports believe affirmative action should be
used to make schools and the work environment more racially diverse so that people
can be exposed to situations involving all races.
Even though many think affirmative action is helping society and they don't want
it to end, states are slowly starting to ban it. Eight states including California,

Washington, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, Texas, Michigan and Oklahoma,

experienced a drop in the number of minority students within those schools. When
California passed Proposition-209 in 1996 which "barred the consideration of race in
public university admissions, (Potter) major schools like UCLA and Berkley were hurt
due to the significant decrease in the number of African Americans and Latinos enrolled.
However, overtime these schools have found a ways to get diversity back up again
without the use of affirmative action. One study showed that 86% of African-Americans
are middle or upper class and that whites are higher up than that economically.
Therefore, blacks may not be going to a top school due to money issues. But, Richard
D. Kahlenberg explains that schools now rely on socioeconomic status in order to boost
the number of minorities. Universities look at a student's economic standing and reward
more financial aid to those with low-income. (Kahlenberg) As a result, more minorities
like African-Americans and Latinos are currently being enrolled into prestigious schools
creating diversity. Another method being used is a percent plan. This strategy involves
schools guaranteeing top graduates from high schools admission into public schools.
These create geographic, socioeconomic and racial diversity because students from all
regions whether they are highly populated with whites, blacks, Hispanics, the rich or the
poor, are being accepted into schools. (Potter)
Currently, society is still questioning affirmative action. Statistics have shown that
it is helping create diversity and eliminating racial tensions but it also shows that some
schools are using it unfairly. A student named Abigail Fisher claimed that she was
denied her admission into the University of Texas because she was white and that this
violated the Equal Protection Clause. After going through three courts, the last one

finally ruled 7-1 in favor of the University of Texas on November 13, 2013. (Fisher v.
University of Texas at Austin) But, Fisher is continuing her fight against affirmative action
and trying to get it banned from admission processes. More and more court cases like
this are arising dealing with how universities are declining whites admissions due to the
use of affirmative action. Along with this people are seeing the how it is being abused
and the negative sides of it. With more bans being placed on schools stating that race
cannot be a factor of admissions the question about whether or not affirmative action is
helping or harming is changing. The new question thats arising is how can we change
affirmative action policies to be more fair and what other methods could be used to
create diversity?

Works Cited
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. 20 September 2015. 2 October 2015.
<http://tarltonguides.law.utexas.edu/fisher-ut>.
Hamacek, Heather. Affirmative action positive at universities, report suggests. 7
March 2013. 1 October 2015.
<http://dailyfreepress.com/2013/03/07/affirmative-action-positive-atuniversities-report-suggests/>.
Kahlenberg, Richard D. No Longer Black and White. 12 March 2014. 1 October 2015.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/03/calif
ornia_affirmative_action_ban_why_liberals_should_let_it_stand.html#lf_comm
ent=145011912>.
McBride, Alex. Landmark Cases. December 2006. 1 October 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/future/landmark_grutter.html>.
Perry, Mark J. Acceptance rates at US medical schools in 2013 . 1 July 2014. 1
October 2015. <https://www.aei.org/publication/acceptance-rates-at-usmedical-schools-in-2013-reveal-racial-profiling-and-affirmative-discriminationfor-blacks-hispanics/>.
Potter, Halley. What Can We Learn from States That Ban Affirmative Action? 26 June
2014. 2 October 2015. <http://www.tcf.org/work/education/detail/what-canwe-learn-from-states-that-ban-affirmative-action>.
Slater, Dan. Does Affirmative Action Do What It Should? 16 March 2013. 1 October
2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/sunday/does-affirmativeaction-do-what-it-should.html?_r=4>.
Top Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions. 20 June 2012. 1 October 2015.
<http://www.virginia.edu/eop/AA%20Plan%20FAQs%205-1-09.html>.
Wicks-Lim, Jeannette. Why We All Need Affirmative Action. 1 December 2014. 1
October 2015. <http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/01/why-weall-need-affirmative-action>.