Resolved: Affirmative action should be practiced in college admissions.

==== OBSERVATIONS ==== Re: CON's 01: If we are to take the resolution as meaning what it says it does, then PRO must only show that it is should be practiced at all, and con must show that it should not be practiced at all. Compare this to saying "Scientists should research a cure for AIDS" or "Scientists should not research a cure for AIDS" In the first statement, it's obvious that we're not talking saying that every scientist should research AIDS, or even that the majority should. IT simply means that some subset of 'scientists' should research a cure for AIDS, whether that is two scientists or a thousand. And the second statement obviously means that no scientists should research a cure for AIDS. In this same vein, PRO in this debate only need show that SOME college admissions should practice affirmative action, while CON must show that none should. Not that it matters at all, since both myself and my opponent are using wide-scale arguments rather than targeting only a few specific colleges. Re: CON's O4: I concede here. My opponent has pointed out that it does not matter how many points we drop, it only matters who has done a better job of convincing you that their side is correct. ==== CONTENTIONS: ==== I _CONCEDE_ a point my opponent has brought up - that AA in its current form is reverse discrimination, since it favors minorities over majorities. Instead of treating people equally, it discriminates against those who never used to be discriminated against in order to help those who did. Allow me then to create the final contention of this debate. C4: Given that AA in its current form is discrimination against majorities, removing this system would itself be a different implementation of AA. From D1, AA is an action that favors those who tend to be discriminated against. In the status quo at colleges, majorities tend to be discriminated against, and removing this system would certainly be an act which favors those majorities with respect to the status quo. ("favors" as a verb means to work to the advantage of, and removing AA clearly works to majority groups' advantage, albeit much more fairly) Let me explain just how significant this is. With regard to the current implementation of AA, there are really only two ways to go. First, we could keep it, meaning colleges would continue practicing the AA they currently practice. Second, we could get rid of it or change it so it doesn't put majority groups at a relative disadvantage anymore, meaning colleges should practice AA in abolishing the current system. And in fact, of the two main choices above, I'm not even going to tell you which one colleges should do - it doesn't matter. I have proven that colleges should, in one way or another, practice AA in college admissions. As far as this debate is concerned, ONE of the implementations I have given for AA MUST be what should happen. Thus, I have successfully affirmed the resolution - to negate it, my opponent would have to show that neither of these implementations of AA is what should happen, and something else should happen instead that cannot be classified as AA. I'm not going to bother arguing against my opponent's contentions, since they're all arguments in favor of one of my own advocacies - stopping the current discriminatory system of AA.