If you were a college admission officer, and you were choosing between a kid who had tried hard his whole life, had better SAT scores, and a better GPA between a kid in a minority who did not try as hard, had a mediocre SAT score, and a lower GPA, who would you choose? Wouldn’t you choose the kid who tried harder? Well unfortunately college admission officers are turning down the kid who really deserves to get into college all the time. Rather than giving affirmative actions to a minority, it should be given to kids in poverty.

Though some minorities have a larger percentage of poverty than those in a majority, that doesn’t mean there aren’t many educated, middle or high-class citizens in that minority. Therefore, those minorities should not be given affirmative actions points when a lot of people in a majority were less privileged than them. For instance “ Thomas Sowell has observed preferences primarily benefit minority applicants from middle and upper class background,” (1 Sacks). Affirmative actions is supposed to help people at a disadvantage, which is why they should give points to people who actually have a disadvantage like people in poverty. Some may argue that almost all people that live in low-income neighbors or attend poor school are black. However this is not true. The black percentage that is in poverty is only a small number compared to all the other races in poverty. So why only give them points?

Another reason affirmative actions is unfair is because it’s not just “ a small plus. In reality the average SAT disparity between… African Americans and white admitters reached 171 points in 1992 “ (Sacks 1). Now this just doesn’t seem fair to me. Though it is supposed to be a “small plus”, for some kids it could be the deciding point for whether they accept them or not. The other side of the argument would say that African Americans (or other minorities) don’t get the same education opportunities as white people (or another majority). This is also not true, because though some children may go to better schools, doesn’t mean they choose to listen or succeed, and it also doesn’t mean that they aren’t of a minority. Minorities have the choice to do well in school or not just as majorities do, so what’s the difference?

Like Sacks states “ But race… do not have a place on this list; these are traits, not achievements” (1). It seems dumb that colleges would accept someone because of their skin color. Thought the colleges are trying to stop racism by making sure there is diversity, they are also causing racism. Choosing someone because they are black sounds racist to me. So how would you feel is you were that kid who didn’t get in because a student who was in a minority was chosen over you? This is why I believe affirmative actions should be given to those in poverty, not simply because of their skin color.