Week 3
Affirmative
action is a program designed to “remedy the adverse consequences on minorities
that stem from a history of discrimination” (Allred, 2007). It was originally
implemented in areas of employment, however, it eventually expanded to other
areas such as higher education in hopes of “remedying the past effects of
discrimination and attaining student body diversity” (Allred, 2007). Asian
Americans are usually the main focus when the topic of affirmative action is
brought up. While they stand to benefit from it, the program can also hurt the
same population it is trying to help. In Lowell High School, given the
demographics of San Francisco, Chinese students are in constant competition against
each other for admittance to that school due there being an anti-discrimination
policy which required enrolling no more than 40% of a racial/ethnic group. Because
of this, students of a Chinese background had the lowest acceptance rates while
white applicants had higher acceptance rates even though their entrance scores
were lower than accepted Chinese Americans. This example of Chinese students
being denied attendance in Lowell High School reveals that despite this program’s
goal and intentions, it still has its flaws. Knowing that, what are some
changes we can make to affirmative action to still make diversify higher
education, but not limit students simply because of a racial quota?
References:
1). Petrosino, K. (n.d.). Posts about affirmative action on Btx3's Blog. Retrieved April 16, 2017, from https://btx3.wordpress.com/tag/affirmative-action/
2). Allred, N. C. (2007). Asian Americans and affirmative action: From yellow peril to model minority and back again. Asian Am. LJ, 14, 57.
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