Is Affirmative Action good or bad?

[AgnosticBoy]

What is Affirmative Action?

Affirmative action began as a government remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against such groups and has
consisted of policies, programs, and procedures that give limited preferences to minorities and women in job hiring, admission to institutions of higher education, the awarding of government contracts, and other social benefits. The typical criteria for affirmative action are race, disability, gender, ethnic origin, and age.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/affirmative-action

Supreme Court's recent decision to do away with it when it comes to college admission in 2023:

In a historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday effectively ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. In a decision divided along ideological lines, the six-justice conservative supermajority invalidated admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

It ends the ability of colleges and universities — public and private — to do what most say they still need to do: consider race as one of many factors in deciding which of the qualified applicants is to be admitted.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a longtime critic of affirmative action programs, wrote the decision for the court majority, saying that the nation's colleges and universities must use colorblind criteria in admissions.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1181138066/affirmative-action-supreme-court-decision

One of my earliest reactions to the Supreme Court's decision is that I agree that laws should be color-blind, but the reality is that society is not color-blind. So if we do away with Affirmative Action then we should have something else (something better of course) in its place to prevent discrimination. One of the Justices made this point:

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's first Black female justice, also chimed in, saying: "With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat.But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life."

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1181138066/affirmative-action-supreme-court-decision

For Discussion:
1. What's your view on Affirmative Action? Do you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court's decision?
2. How can we prevent race-based discrimination in colleges and elsewhere?

 

[AgnosticBoy]

1. What's your view on Affirmative Action? Do you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court's decision?

I definitely think we need a system in place to prevent discrimination. Based on history, we know that people can be racially biased and it's not always based on hate (racism), but can also just be a preference for one's own race. While I don't think making college admissions like some quota (where you have 20% Blacks, 20% Whites, 20% Asians, etc) would be good because some times you may not have any good candidates (based on skill) out of a group of applicants for a particular college for a certain race. For instance, say that a college program only accepts 40 students. 35 of the applicants are White and 5 are minorities (Black, Hispanic or whatever else). Lets even say that the most of the White applicants have good GPAs and qualifications while none of the minorities have good GPAs and good qualifications. Should we still accept the minority students just to say you have some minorities (to meet a quota based on race) in your program while denying all of the qualified White students? It's possible for all good candidates to end up being all of the same race.

Definitely, something should be done to prevent racial discrimination but I question if race quotas or having race carry a heavier weight for admission process is a good practice.

2. How can we prevent race-based discrimination in colleges and elsewhere?

One option is to expand the number of college seats or colleges so that more people can come in and it won't need to be as limited.

We also have to address any root causes of skill and education disparities by race and a lot of this probably starts before college. FOr instance, if you have schools (pre-k to high school) in predominantly African-American areas that are poor performing, then they need to be improved on that way these kids can compete on an equal playing field in terms of education, preparedness for college, etc.