Monday, October 15, 2012 By Tess Brewer
Affirmative Action ensures diversity within universities, an important aspect of university life. -
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As a senior in high school, college application and acceptance is a common topic of conversation. There is nothing that peeves me more when scholarship discussion arises than when privileged, middle-class white men complain about affirmative action and equal opportunity scholarships. This ridiculous idea that there is no racism or discrimination toward minority groups in our country, that minorities no longer need compensation for the societal wrongs the white population has burdened them with for centuries, displays the ignorance that blinds so many in the United States. This issue takes a turn for the worse when those living in discontent claim that affirmative action is “reverse racism.” There is nothing racist about affirmative action. White people are not being discriminated against by minority scholarships. This term is nothing but an under-informed display of victim envy.
Look at the facts: 35% of African Americans in the United States live in poverty. That’s more than one in every three. Compare that to the 13% of white people who live below poverty lines and it becomes clear that black people don’t have the opportunity that white people do in today’s society. The recognition that we, the white population as a whole, need to accept is that African Americans are not living in poverty by their own doing; we put them there. There is no universal laziness in the African American culture, no unwillingness to work or to become educated that is keeping their poverty rates so far above those of white Americans. Through years of discrimination, we have bound 35% of our population to poverty, a poverty that they have inherited, that they were born into, and unless they can break free from it, they will pass it on to their children as well. Education is fundamental to breaking the cycle.
In the ideal world, we could base qualifications for college acceptance solely on test scores and GPA. Questions of race would have no place on college applications and there would be no need for minority scholarships. But as things are today, we can’t look at someone’s test scores and say whether or not they are more qualified than someone else. The adversity and discrimination, as well as cultural differences that minority groups, especially those living in poverty, face, as well as the vast discrepancies between school systems in areas of poverty and those in more privileged communities creates an issue when evaluating educational standards. To say a kid who attends an inner city public school is less qualified than a kid from the suburbs attending a school with an excellent teaching staff and adequate resources, technology and equipment who received a higher ACT score is wrong, and that student should not be denied an adequate education because of where he/she was born.
Of course, not all minorities are poor. Asian Americans have lower-than-average poverty rates, yet there are scholarship programs out there especially for them. Of course there are! Someone who doesn’t have to experience the cultural differences between white American families and Asian American families cannot fathom their impact on life, the stress it adds, or the conflict it causes. Bellbrook grad Melody Chen, an Asian American student at OSU and recipient of an affirmative action type scholarship, explained, “Whether it's an argument over going to a school event on a weekday or trying to explain that normal teenagers are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities, kids who grow up in families with parents from foreign countries are faced with conflicts, whether small or large, that the average white American teenager would never encounter. Growing up in this environment has led me to make adaptations in my everyday life and, at times, even question my identity.” The capability to cope with this added stress at an already stressful time in a high school student's life, while still maintaining a high academic standing, makes these students equally as qualified as any white kid with a 4.0 GPA and a 30 or higher on their ACT.
I’m not trying to say we should just hand out scholarships to any Asian student or African American student or Latin American student or any student of any other minority group. But for those who achieve academic excellence through all of the adversity and cultural conflict they are subjected to, they are fully deserving of the scholarships they receive. These scholarships are an important recognition of this adversity, of this added stress that they battle, a recognition the American population as a whole owes to them.