Affirmative Action Should be Disallowed

Convenience “The whole definition still applies to AA, as it makes admission is to college makes it "easier" to get into college. The amount of work needed to be accepted is somewhat less for minorities since race is also a factor, which makes it easier indeed…” Easy is imprecise, but as defined (1- achieved without great effort; presenting few difficulties. 2-[of a period of time or way of life] free from worries or problems. 1[adverb] without difficulty or effort.)[1] I think I have shown this is not the case for most minorities. Directly addressing the concept that amount of work is somehow important to the question, let me state that merit based system have no concern for amount of work. You argue on the one hand that SAT scores are the critical factor, and on the other that amount of work is the determining factor. The quality of score may have only a causal relationship with amount of work. Getting the best students or employees can be said to have little to do with amount of work. I only used the first part of the definition because it was more relevant to AA than the second part is, but the second part can still be applied to the practice. The initial purpose of AA was to to level the system of admission, but it cannot be argued that it doesn't make it easier for minorities to get in. Making admissions easier is not the same as making it easy. Let me state it this way, if you insist on understanding it as an effort to make it easier - all metrics used in the selection process are an attempt to make it easier for admissions personnel to sort through applicants to find the best possible students. Looking up "convenience" led to a definition with the word "convenient" included, and both need to be defined for convenience to make sense at all. The words are the same just in different forms of each other. Fair enough, but the site you referenced had different wording for the definitions. As I have shown, the word is not very well suited for use in connection with this debate. Racial Bias If people are being proved to be racist then they should be dealt with and their job holding should be questioned. AA is the wrong way to address this problem, as it focuses on the students instead of the original source of the problem. Also, the study does not show that this bias happens in every school, only a few, so it doesn't make a legitimate argument anyway for schools who do not have people who are racially biased. Racism doesn’t exist as a perfectly uniform thing within society. One segment of the minority population may experience one facet while another segment experiences another. The source of the problem has had an effect on the student, and that affirmative action is addressing the issue should be recognized as a net positive. Background I agree that background should be taken into factor when being admitted to college. If a student received a 3.8 GPA in a mediocre school and another student received a 3.4 GPA in a really good school, then the quality of the school should be taken into consideration, or something to the effect of the example you mentioned. The problem with AA is that it does not focus on background, it only focuses on race. By making the assumption that all minorities are poor and all whites and Asians are rich it is unfairly crediting people whether they are poor or not. Yes, there may be a correlation between poverty and race, but not all blacks and Hispanics are poor and not all whites and Asians are rich. If a rich black person gets an extra boost by AA versus a poor white person who doesn't, then the poor white person is being unfairly discriminated against. The system of AA is rigged when it comes to background because it cheats people of a majority ethnicity by holding them back to let a minority through even if that minority has had a richer background. This is a very valid point. One that on the surface seems completely acceptable. Where it falls short, improvements can be made. It is a weak argument to scrap a successful program because of any slight issue within the program. In other words, more granularity could improve the system, but because we don’t have it today is not a reason to stop the program. Th fact that AA accounts for an extra variable, a variable that always remains constant, makes the bar automatically lower for minorities than whites and Asians. The majorities can't say "well, I need to work in that area" because they can't. It is impossible to change race but it is possible to change merit, which is why an unfair advantage is prevalent from the start. Like I said, they "you" problem still hurts minorities whether it is a social problem or not. Background is also a social problem, isn't it? One of the initial reasons for AA was to increase a minority's standing or placement, which can be regarded as social status. You even admitted in your last paragraph that AA "is one way to address social problems". This stigma is the product of racist attitudes. Doing away with affirmative action does not solve the issues, the stigma and racist attitudes exist regardless. The recipient student would still face racist attitudes, only possibly without an advanced degree and the social status that comes with it. It’s doubtful that any reasonable person would make a trade, give up the college degree to please someone who sees him as “less” because of affirmative action. Most people will not make this complaint of him, and those that would might have more bigotry to the individual without the degree. Cheat Take it this way: AA is like legally cheating, being told that you have an unfair advantage in regards to other students. What I said is that supporters of AA are admitting that they want to make it through life unfairly especially since they are allowed to. The fact that they are allowed to do this doesn't make them at fault, it makes the legal system that is flawed a cheat. The system is at fault - The system that has provided generations of unfair advantage to non-minority students. I used a bit of personal antidote above, and feel it has use in this answer again. I have seen firsthand in my life, and the life’s of those around me, the staggering advantages granted. That all non-minority students don’t get all the advantages is not critical to the necessity of a system to level out the advantages granted to many. Call it cheating if you must, but call those that the system are attempting to balance for cheats too. Conclusion Affirmative action has been a successful program to balance long understood issues. It should not be scraped; it should be expanded and perfected. The issues it attempts to address still exist today, and affirmative action is only fixing a small portion of the systematic problems. It is understandable that many will misunderstand and dislike the system. The beneficiaries are not getting something at another’s expense, but that’s how it commonly is felt. How someone feels is not really any sort of reason to dismantle a successful program. This was an excellent debate pro. I would welcome another debate with you anytime. Thanks.