Affirmative Action: Detrimental to African Americans

Affirmative Action: Detrimental to African Americans

What is Affirmative action? Well, according to Christopher Edley Affirmative Action is "any effort taken to expand opportunity for women or racial, ethnic, and national origin minorities by using membership in those groups that have been subject to discrimination as a consideration in Decision-making or in the allocation of resources (Edley 1996: 17). Affirmative Action is a misguided concept that is detrimental to African Americans cultural development in the American society. Affirmative Action places African Americans in schools they are unqualified for and thus their dropout rate is high. Affirmative action also devalues African Americans individual achievements. Finally, Affirmative action attempts to stunt the culture growth of African Americans.

Affirmative Action often places African American students in schools they are unfit for and they find it hard to succeed. A main argument proponent's use for Affirmative Action is that disadvantaged students need a boost to attend college and this will be beneficial to them. However, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 62 percent of White students attain their bachelor degree in under 6 years compared to only 39 percent for African Americans (Condition of Education: 2012). Often times, African American students are admitted to schools they are academically unqualified for, due to Affirmative Action, and they have a very hard time succeeding. An ideal example of this occurred at UCLA, after the Proposition 209 ban of Affirmative Action was implemented(Sander 2012:2). Following the ban, there was a substantial drop in minority students: 50 percent drop in African Americans and 25 percent drop for Hispanics. Naturally, numerous protests followed, until in 2006 the University finally reinstated preferential treatment. Although there was a steep drop in Black and Hispanic students after Proposition 209 was implemented, the same number of Black and Hispanic students received bachelor degrees for the five classes after the proposition than the five classes before. Affirmative action may have solved the problem of underrepresentation at UCLA, but it is clearly not conducive to African American success. In Michael Dyson's debate with Carl Cohen he states, "and most important, it [diversity] provides an intellectual context to demystify some of these prejudice's and biases that feed racial injustice"(Dyson 72). Michael Dyson is incorrect in his assertion that diversity on college campuses is dispelling prejudices, rather the high dropout rate is perpetuating stereotypes, stigmatizing minorities, and leaving them with a feeling of self-doubt. African Americans are not intellectually inferior to Whites, as some statistics would suggest, they are merely unprepared due to problems in their development. To bridge the gap of economic disparity between Whites and Blacks in American society the inner city school system needs to be restructured. More charter schools must be developed, there should be higher expectations in schools, and more focus should be put on standardized testing. This will help better prepare African Americans for colleges rather than unfairly throwing them into the fire at schools whose standards they don't meet. By ridding the country of Affirmative Action and funding inner city schools Black students will have a better chance of graduating and a better chance at a successful life.

Affirmative action gives preference to minority groups and thus devalues African Americans individual accomplishments and qualifications. Minority office workers often speak of the glass ceiling, an invisible barrier that prevents them from climbing up the corporate ladder. Many believe that Affirmative Action will help them break the barrier, but after three decades of Affirmative Action it is still almost impossible for them to break through the barrier. According to U.S. Glass Ceiling Commision in 1995 "97 percent of the senior managers of Fortune 1000 Industrial and Fortune 500 companies are white, and 95 to 97 percent are male...and African American men with professional degrees earn 21 percent less than their white counterparts holding the same degrees in the same job categories"(US Glass Ceiling Commision 1995:2). Clearly, White males hold almost all of the power in the United States. Affirmative Action has not improved this, rather it is holding minorities back. Many times in the workplace co-workers and bosses believe that the African Americans are unqualified and only received the job due to their race. Shelby Steele writes that the division of preferred (Minority) and unpreferreds (White males), "Makes automatic a perception of enhanced competence for the unpreferreds and questionable competence for the preferred"(Steele 1990:321). Preferential treatment encourages the notion that African Americans attained a job because of their race rather than their accomplishments and credentials. This puts Whites in a superior position, while Blacks are once again seen as inferior. Steele continues and states, "Affirmative Action makes a glass ceiling virtually necessary, as a protection of the corruptions of preferential treatment"(Steele