According to a quick Google search, affirmative action is a policy put in place to help, or favor, individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously. It is because of this policy that many individuals that fall into minority categories have been given the opportunity to advance and excel in the professional world. Before affirmative action was put into place in 1961, discrimination against minority groups kept them from advancing since it made it that much harder to endure. The new policy put in place by Kennedy made it more feasible for a minority to get admitted into an institution even if they are slightly below the qualifications. Many people coming from these backgrounds didn’t grow up with the same resources and opportunities that perhaps others of different socioeconomic backgrounds always had readily available.
Is affirmative action constitutional? As of yet there is not really a clear answer. There are solid arguments coming from both sides but it is still a very controversial topic in politics. In the Harvard Affirmative Action Case, Michael Wang claimed that even though he was very qualified and had an impressive resume, he was rejected because he was asian. When he started this legal battle with Harvard, many other students who felt the same thing had happened to them rose up and had his back. He believed that since Harvard had already accepted a certain percentage of Asian students, he was automatically rejected so the institution could fulfill the rest of their diversity quotas. However, despite the statistics, Harvard claimed that they do not accept students of different backgrounds just to fulfill a quote. According to a Supreme Court ruling that is over 40 years old, colleges are allowed to consider race when accepting applicants but they are not allowed to follow explicit quotas. These students who were rejected felt that they were not unqualified rather just “the wrong race.” Ultimately Harvard won the legal battle, but unfortunately there is still a war to be fought over Affirmative Action, according to Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times. Already, in 9 states in the U.S, Affirmative Action has been banned. Students of backgrounds that are not “favored” by affirmative action claim that it is unconstitutional and discriminatory. A slightly similar case in which a student fought against Affirmative Action in the state of Texas is Fisher v. University of Texas. She claimed that she was not accepted because the University gave her spot to a minority student accepted because of the “discriminatory” policy. This took place back in 2015.
Like in Wang’s case with Harvard, Fisher also believed that she wasn’t admitted simply because she was the wrong race. The difference here was that Fisher wasn’t fully did not graduate in the upper 10 percent of her class and believed that she was just competing “for the limited number of spaces up for grabs.” Fisher argued that the reason she was rejected was because she was white but other students with slightly lower grades did get accepted perhaps because they had different backgrounds, stories and even resumes.
Now, let's go back to the Harvard case. Who was right in this argument? Personally I believe that Affirmative Action programs are highly beneficial. As I mentioned earlier, many times, students that come from less advantageous backgrounds, don't have the necessary financial and academic resources to be able to succeed on their own. I am not saying it is impossible because it most definitely is not; I am saying that succeeding and breaking out of a cycle of poverty can be much harder without access to necessary help. Yes, we have progressed from the days that blatant discrimination was accepted and legal but sadly we have not fully moved past it yet. It is very controversial when talking about the legality of Affirmative Action but without it, I believe that discrimination will prevail and individuals of minority groups will endure more struggles when moving up in the world. There are still many instances in which we are not taken seriously even when in positions of high leadership and importance. Taking away Affirmative Action could possibly make this worse.
