Affirmative action is undoubtedly one of the touchiest subjects in modern American politics. Inextricably linked to the issue of race, discussions of it are often tense and are sometimes heated. Proponents of it claim that it is a necessary step toward achieving racial (and, in some other countries, gender) equality. But should the government be promoting it? Is it the same thing as reverse discrimination? Read on, and be enlightened.

Affirmative action refers to the practice of giving a non- dominant or minority group preferential treatment in employment or access to educational institutions. In addition to this preferential treatment, governments using an affirmative action program will reach out to minority groups through advertising campaigns or propaganda to entice them into to bettering their situations. Affirmative action in the United States began in 1961, when President Kennedy issued an executive order requiring that federal works projects “take affirmative action” to ensure non-discrimination in employment. Since then, it has evolved into the practice of giving preferential treatment to minority groups, particularly African Americans.

Those who support affirmative action in the US point to large wealth disparities between white and black Americans. They point to the long history of racial prejudice, beginning with slavery. Many advocates will point to studies which show that implicit racism is rampant in America (a Harvard study estimated that 80% of whites and 50% of blacks held implicit prejudices against African Americans). Therefore, they conclude, it is necessary to level the playing field.

There are a few problems with these arguments, however. Though it is true that large wealth disparities exist in America and that blacks have been subjected to horrible oppression in the past, we must ask ourselves this question: Who will decide when African Americans have truly achieved equality under this measure? If the purpose of it is to achieve racial equality, who will be the one to decide when it has accomplished its goals? Before you answer this question, keep in mind that the most stalwart advocates are not poor black people, but rather middle and upper class African Americans. If racial parity were magically achieved in this country tomorrow, odds are that these advocates would not disappear, but would only lobby all the harder to maintain affirmative action policies.

There is a second, far more profound reason to oppose affirmative action. This reason stems from the fact that affirmative action programs in the US inevitably discriminate against other minority groups. The most striking example of this is the “Asian Fail”, a term which refers to Asians who score higher on standardized tests and get better grades in school, but who are denied admission to colleges over less qualified candidates due to affirmative action policies. A 2005 study by the Center for Equal Opportunity found that Asian Americans were admitted to the University of Michigan at a rate of 54%, compared to admission rates for Hispanics and African Americans that exceeded 70%. Yet, the study also revealed that the Asian applicants had scored a median of 140 points higher on the SAT than Hispanics, and 240 points higher than African Americans. Far from promoting equality, affirmative action programs in our nation’s colleges clearly proliferate discrimination and unfairness.

Another reason to be skeptical of affirmative action is that it harms race relations. Neo-Nazi groups routinely use affirmative action to demonize African Americans and appeal to poor white youth (ex. by suggesting that all of the good jobs available to poor youth will be given to African Americans via affirmative action). Less extreme examples can be found among non- black students and job-seekers who feel they are the subjects of reverse discrimination in college and job applications. Affirmative action is even used by some conservatives to suggest that prominent African Americans owe their career successes to preferential treatment. (See the second paragraph of Conservapedia’s entry on Barack Obama, for an example: “He has no clear personal achievement that cannot be explained as the likely result of affirmative action.”) In terms of race relations, affirmative action harms everyone involved.

A final reason to oppose affirmative action comes in the form of a question: Who should be included in affirmative action programs? Simple, right? Wrong! Virtually every minority group in the US can claim a history of discrimination. This includes not only African Americans and Hispanics, but also Asians, the Irish, Jewish Americans, gays and lesbians, and even short people (discrimination of the short trumps discrimination against blacks in the business world). It would be impossible to fit every group that has been discriminated against due to immutable characteristics into an affirmative action program, even if we limited the program to those groups with significant income disparities. In fact, it is inevitable that some of these minority groups will end up being the objects of further discrimination due to affirmative action (ex. the Asian Fail, as mentioned above). There is simply too much discrimination against too many minority groups in US history to make an equitable affirmative action program feasible.

I sincerely hope that I have not offended anyone by making this article. I would like to point out that though I am a white male, I would stand to benefit if affirmative action were implemented in some of the colleges I will be applying to (white undergraduates make up only 31% of the population at UC Berkeley, my top college choice). Yet, there are too many flaws bound to affirmative action programs for me to be able to support them. Perhaps affirmative action programs could be revised by making socioeconomic status the factor that determines who benefits from them. Or perhaps affirmative action should simply be abolished, to be remembered only as a sordid program in America’s long history of racial blunders. Either way, the status quo is unfair and untenable, and must be changed.