The Issue of Affirmative Action
If you’ve ever hovered your mouse over a checkbox under the race and ethnicity section of an academic application, you’ve probably wondered what effect it would have on your chances of admission. A widely-held belief is that Latinx and Black applicants tend to benefit from listing their race on applications. This phenomenon is referred to as affirmative action, a system of laws and policies that exist to boost equity for members of socioeconomically disadvantaged demographics through preferential treatment in employment, education, and business opportunities.
Oftentimes, the people favored by this initiative are members of formerly oppressed and disadvantaged communities. Affirmative action was first implemented in the U.S. in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy via Executive Order 10925, which stated that employers should "not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin." In 1967, this system was expanded to protect people against discrimination by sex.
At face value, affirmative action seems beneficial and well-intentioned. It should, in theory, help shift the trajectory of said communities towards prosperity. However, the preferential treatment of members of certain groups or races (namely Latinx and Black individuals) is a highly-debated topic, since many argue that it could rob more qualified applicants—who are not members of disadvantaged groups—of certain opportunities.
Regardless of whether or not that is a valid argument against affirmative action, it is clear that the execution of affirmative action in our social infrastructure and in college admissions is flawed. In fact, recent studies have demonstrated how the preferential treatment of Black and Latinx prospective students may not have the desired long-term effects on the communities that supposedly benefit from these policies.
One adverse effect is that in many highly competitive universities, minority students end up towards the bottom of their classes due to a more lenient approach towards their credentials. This lapse in credentials is in itself due to a history of oppression and a lack of access to prestigious programs—opportunities that are often more available to more privileged groups, such as white people. While there are students from under-represented groups who do fit the average profile of admitted students at top universities, the fact of the matter is there are not enough of them to satisfy the demand of these institutions.
According to data released by the University of Texas from the entering class of 2009, mean SAT scores (out of 2400) and mean high-school GPAs had strong correlations with race. For Asian Americans, the credentials were 1991 and 3.07. For white Americans, they were 1914 and 3.04, for Latinx-Americans, they were 1794 and 2.83, and for African-Americans, they were 1524 and 2.57.
To put these numbers in perspective, the average SAT score for black students was in the 52nd percentile, as opposed to the 93rd percentile for Asian students. Although in most universities today the differences in credentials between race groups are not this major, the issue still persists and its effects remain quite drastic.
The starkness of this gap in credentials is significant for one main reason: most students perform within the expected range for their credentials upon entering university. Based on this statistic, it can be inferred that when competitive universities relax their admissions standards for disadvantaged prospective students, they further the separation of students’ performance by race.
The problem of minority enrollment in colleges is more than simply what goes on in the admissions offices. The root of the issue remains a problem of minority qualification. To combat this issue, more energy should be spent enhancing relatively underfunded and uncompetitive schools with the resources needed to help less affluent students (disproportionately minority students) flourish. We should focus on reducing test score and GPA gaps between racial groups rather than altering the admissions process itself. But even more than that, schools should prioritize empowering all students, especially minority students, to increase their ambitions and aspirations and ensure a smooth shift into college and the professional world.
by LINA JAAFAR