Affirmative Action Essay

Racial diversity is a desired concept that intends to secure the right of equal opportunity that is promised to all citizens of the United States. Such an idealistic vision has been attempted through a process called affirmative action. As a program created from the 14th Amendment, affirmative action aims to impose “equal protection of the laws” by requiring schools to adopt a quota for the enrollment of minorities. This program is intended to compensate for the centuries of discrimination that minorities have faced, but affirmative action has became problematic as it has failed to do this. Affirmative action is not the solution to ensure equal opportunity for minorities to access higher education. Although affirmative action has increased diversity in selective schools, it defeats its purpose because the resulting diversity is not equal representation of the nation’s communities , the process has led to reverse discrimination, and the education standard has been lowered in the selective schools.

At the start of a new era, the Constitution was created in order to ensure security and prosperity for the citizens of the United States. Within this sacred document is the 14th Amendment which states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States….are citizens of the United States….nor shall any state deprive any [citizen] of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (14th Amendment). This amendment was created in order to protect the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that gave citizens the same rights “without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude” (1866 Civil Rights Act), but it was written such...

... middle of paper ...

...ades and effort because they are learning in an unmotivated and less competitive environment which later affects their education as well. This unfairly prevents students from gaining the higher education that they had originally applied for which counteracts the purpose of equal opportunity.

Throughout time, more problems have arisen through Affirmative Action. Although it was a program enacted with the good intention of decreasing the discrimination of minorities, it had the opposite effect. Much to the dislike of majorities such as whites, minorities were able to receive a better education despite low education scores and as a result, the whites were less motivated to do better or were denied admittance into colleges despite being qualified. The attractive concept of racial equality was unsuccessful as it did not take into consideration many real world factors.