Would you like to have your opponent to have extra point above you because they are not Caucasian? Do you want to be beat out by a girl because she had a few extra points above you? Does that seem fair? When it comes to college there are so many decisions that have to be made, college is the starting of the rest of your life. Who you come from and whether you’re a girl or boy really need to help you get in? When it comes down to it, it is not fair to give people points for something that they cannot control. The kid’s chances to get into the college of their dreams can be changed with one extra point. There are two sides of this argument the side for affirmative action and the side against. I agree with affirmative action, but not based on race, but income.

When it comes to the determination to people who want to get into college, it not only to the wealthy kids but also the ones living in poverty. People who live in poverty have a horrible environment, and a lack of resources. The live surround by sewage and diseases, they don’t even have enough money to afford that things you need to stay healthy. I read an article by Kozol and it said, “Was evacuated Friday afternoon after sewage flowed into the kitchen… the kitchen was closed and the students were sent home” (2). Even if the student were trying there hardest at school they truly are not fully learning to there full potential. They don’t get a chance to learn all they can because they don’t even get to go to school for a whole year. The government does not even believe that poverty needs a chance, they just let it be unhealthy and disgusting and believe they can fix it themselves. The schools are over flowed by students, they are not enough teachers, and tutors are not available for every child. How is a child supposed to grow in these types of surroundings? They live through so much, they deserve a few extra points to het into college. They can’t even afford school supplies that we can buy anytime we run out. Even if they try to learn and strive to get into college it is difficult with what they have.

Living in poverty is harder then we could ever imagine, you never know what they go through until you actually experience it. Their health care is lacking and they live through pain daily, and have difficulty paying attention in school. In the article it said this, “teenagers who are missing half of their teeth” (Kozol 1). Can you even imagine, by thirteen years old, almost half of you teeth are gone. Without teeth you can barely eat solid foods, how are kids suppose to concentration and not be in pain when they have no teeth and disease everywhere in their mouth. Children can’t afford to get heath care, instead they live through pain not only in their teeth but who knows where else on a daily basis. The live with disease flowing everywhere around them, and maybe even disease in them, but unlike us they cant just go to the doctor and get medicine for it, they love through school, home, sleeping, and eating with sicknesses.

People who think that affirmative action is absolutely unfair and out of the questions have reason to support them, but there are always ways to work around those. The counterargument says that they have lived through so much, they deserve a little extra points. Well first of all, not all poverty people are minorities. People may think that most of them are but that not true there are many poverty driven lives for white people. Why don’t they get the extra points to, they could have lived the exact same life as the Latino but do they get the points? Second of all, everyone goes through troubles in their life they may not be the same but they are hard. Not only men or women or African American or white, everyone has hard times and they are different for each person.

Now when it comes to the teens in poverty that are not only minorities but all white many people say, if they are not going to work hard enough them why do they deserve the points. That is saying that they are not even working they don’t know that. Many people work just as hard maybe even harder when they are in poverty. You never know how hard they are working when they don’t have the teachers, tutors, or even supplies to do it. Even if they wanted to try there best it seems like nothing to the outside world.

The two sides for affirmative action have totally different views and to each other they all sound not logic or false, I believe that taking affirmative actions and using it by race is not rational, it should be judged on income. Would you rather have your opponent beat you because they are Arabian or because they lived in poverty all their life?