Writing and Declamation
20 November 2009
Affirmative Action

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (King 1). Many people in modern times believe that the dark days of racism and judgment of color has faded away into the old History textbooks and is almost unheard of. Although one thing is still left to change; affirmative action. Most people have overlooked the injustice and cruelty of affirmative action, if they even know what it is. Affirmative action is where extra points are put on certain tests, résumés, or other education determined analyses in favor of a person’s gender or race. It is often used on the SAT or ACT to improve bicultural standards on college campuses. It is made to “give minorities a fighting chance” over the whites. It has nothing to do with educational preferences and is bias. I believe that affirmative action should be dropped due to racism to people who are not minorities and does not relate to educational achievements.

Affirmative action shows racism to people who are not minorities and race should not determine test scores. Colleges are now admitting minorities with lower scores to be selected into colleges over whites that have greater scores. Why should people be given extra points over the color of their skin? It has nothing over the education standards of today’s society and is unfair to whites. It also can offend minorities by insulting them by making them feel unable to complete it themselves. Colleges should not be judging the outcome over test scores by the race of the test taker.

Colleges would also be accepting less qualified candidates for their colleges. Their students would not be as smart and the ratings for the school would drop significantly. Affirmative action is even bad for the schools itself. If colleges keep up with affirmative action, they would eventually pay the price too. It would start to crumble through the ratings and end up as a low qualified school, resulting in less students and less money, which could even lead to bankruptcy. If colleges keep affirmative action, the schools will fall apart themselves.

Affirmative action also encourages minorities to slack off and use affirmative action to get into college as a benefit. If affirmative action is kept, it will send a message to all the minority children to not try their very best and to work their way through school without care or concern. I thought schools job were to prepare students for the real world, not to help them to slack off and forget about a well-earned education. Our present-day student affirmative action rule is ruining our education system.

This situation reminded me much of the movie Akeelah and the Bee. It is about a poor minority girl who is surrounded by a horrible school, a bad neighborhood, and bad influences. But throughout all the turmoil and chaos, she manages to work hard in her classes and wins the American Spelling Bee contest. I think it gives us hope. Akeelah grew up in a horrible neighborhood and had a terrible family, but she does not give up or succumb to the evils of temptation. She tries her very best and ends up being more successful than almost every non-minority. If Akeelah can do it, so can everybody else. It brings us hope that even if you have all the odds against you in life, or if you have almost no way of winning at all, if you try hard enough, you can make it to the top. It may not be easy, and it may be harder for some that others, but with the right amount of effort and just enough perseverance, race or wealth does not determine anything important in life to worry about. With all these skills, even the impossible becomes possible.