Ashley Yong Source 2

Is it time to end racial preferences?

Katel, Peter. "Affirmative Action." CQ Researcher 17 Oct. 2008: 841-64. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.

President Obama said in an interview that while he supports affirmative action "as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination," he believes colleges should look at a candidate in his/her entirety. Ninety-three percent of people polled in a study said, "We should help people who are working hard to overcome disadvantages and succeed in life." but fewer support race-based affirmative action measures. This article explores a number of Supreme Court decisions on higher education and affirmative action, but also diverts readers attention to the root of the problem: socioeconomic diversity in "lower education" schools.

When the Concerned Student 1950 movement was in full swing, my boyfriend and I got into an argument about racism. I claimed that black people cannot be racist to white people and he disagreed. I could not fully articulate why I thought so. Yesterday during our diversity training for Summer Welcome, we defined what racism (or any -ism for that matter) is. To be racism, it must satisfy three levels: structural, interpersonal and internal. An example of structural is like how Latina women make $0.53 to the white man's $1. An example of interpersonal is like a white man calling a black man a racial slur. An example of internal is if I said, "A black man from my hometown works at McDonald's." and how you'd assume he was a cashier when I was in fact referencing the former CEO. So, a black-only book club is not racist because while it satisfies the interpersonal level, the structural and internal levels are not satisfied. If it only satisfies one or two levels, it is prejudice/bias, but not racism. That lesson leads me to believe that preferencing minority students over white students is not racist and puts it in a way that I can use as a piece of evidence in debate. This source changed my thinking when it asked readers to look at early schooling and how that has an impact on higher education. While I must stay focused on the higher education aspect, I thought it was an important point to note. I had honestly never thought the way Obama did when he was speaking about his daughter in the college admission process. I completely ignored the fact that there are whites who are less advantaged than black people and do agree that it is important to consider not only the candidate's academic achievements and race, but also their family income, etc. This leads me to answer my overarching question for this post with "No. It still need to be a part of the process but should not be a determining factor."

I can put this source in conversation with Source 1 when asking, "How much, if at all, should we take public opinion into account when creating affirmative action policies?" because both of the sources address public opinion and are dependent on numerous variables. I tend to agree with my Source 2 article more because it focuses less on constitution/law/court cases, which is what I feel needs to be done with affirmative action. The new approach that putting sources 1 and 2 in context makes me question, "How has a focus on public opinion or the constitution have an impact on affirmative action policies in the past, and what can this tell us about approaching affirmative action in the future?"

The new questions this source has led me to ask include, "Has affirmative action outlived its usefulness?", "Does race-based affirmative action still face powerful public opposition?" and "Has affirmative action diverted attention from the poor quality of K-12 education in low-income communities?" These are important to explore and attempt to answer before we can assess the overarching question/thesis of "What does affirmative action tell us about the stake of minority students in higher education?" One answer that I have so far is yes, college should consider race in admissions. Next, I will explore an article on the fairness of race policies, also from CQ Researcher.