Martin Luther King’s “dream” was about people being
“colorblind” and not judging people by the color of their
skin. Affirmative action does not follow his dream like they
say it does. Affirmative action discriminates against the
majorities rather than the minorities; instead of fixing the problem, they switch the problem. Affirmative action is a system where a minority gets accepted to a school with a lower grade than a white person to make schools more diverse. U.S. colleges should not keep affirmative action because it is unfair to some people, it is judgmental of people’s social class and color, and it is based more on a student’s ethnic background rather than his or her merits.

Affirmative Action is unfair to the white people, because it is not fixing the problem. I agree that there needs to be more diversity; however, they could come up with a way that is fairer to everyone. It takes hope away from the white people who have worked so hard to get into the college of their choice and getting declined because they accept a minority who is not as hard working and has no chance of making the grades and requirements the school expects. Some minorities do not have the study and learning skills others have to make it in a hard and challenging college. That is not saying they should just give up and not apply to colleges; it is saying that there should be another way to accept both equally.

Affirmative action is judgmental of one’s social class and color. Even though white people are considered a “majority,” not all are extremely wealthy and have had the best of education like some others have had. Affirmative action makes it even harder for lower class white males to get into a college. It is unfair to assume every white person is wealthy and can
afford the best education and opportunities. The colleges
say they are pushing for diversity but in reality they are making circumstances worse. David Sacks and Peter Thiel make a statement that “this same push for “diversity” also has lad Stanford to create racially segregated dormitories, racially segregated freshman orientation programs, racially segregated graduation ceremonies and curricular requirements in race theory and gender studies” (1).

Affirmative action is based on your ethnic background rather than your achievements in academics and other activities. Getting accepted to a school because of the color of your skin is like rewarding the fact that you are a certain color rather than rewarding your achievements and hard work. It is like telling someone they will not have a chance at a career or even future because of their ethnic background. Sources say, “standardized testing reinforces racial and class division in higher education” (2). Standardized testing has nothing to do with one’s race. It is a test that everyone has to take no matter your race.

U.S. colleges should not keep affirmative action because it is unfair to some people, it is judgmental of people’s social class and color, and it is based more on your ethnic background rather than your merits. If they could find a way that could accept more minorities but not compare them to others and knock down the hard workers there would be less tension and segregation in the colleges and maybe even in the future generations. In this case, being “colorblind” does not mean seeing black and white, it means seeing no color at all.



The fourth piece of writing that was written during the semester was my paper about affirmative action. I expressed my views about how affirmative action should not be used in U.S. colleges because it is not fair for all. The strengths of my paper were my arguments about the topic. I made good points but did not back them up or explain them very well. That shows my weakness of defending my arguments.