In East St. Louis there are many underprivileged families. Almost every family deals with, “poverty, lack of education, crime, dilapidated housing, insufficient health care and unemployment… and insects bearing polio and hepatitis” everyday (Kozol 1). On average “there are 54 homicides a week in East St. Louis… and disturbances that not even the police can control” (Kozol 2). Schools are overflowing with sewage, “flowing into the basement, through the floor, then up into the kitchen and the students’ bathrooms” (Kozol 2). The schools also take cuts in education “one-quarter of the teaches and 75 teacher aids will be cut” but when it comes to sports “the board notes, sports and music programs will not be affected” (Kozol 3). Most of the children that live in East St. Louis or cities like it believe that there isn’t a future for them, which is an excellent honest answer. Today “ a diploma from a ghetto high school doesn’t count for much in the United States” (Kozol 3). Do the minorities and ladies who have worked hard and persevered through this style of education and life deserve extra points on collage admissions? Most of you will probably say yes, but what about the men and the Caucasian average person who live in the same town and go through the same hardships of education and life. They don’t get extra points simply because they are not minorities. So is this right to only give affirmative action, a policy developed to give preference to certain groups in collage such as racial minorities, women, and those from poor families, to these minorities and not the average person who worked just as hard to get good grades and get through school. I believe that schools should do away with affirmative action when deciding whom they accept. Acceptance should be based upon grades and the different unique qualities they can bring to the school.
Did you ever think that by trying to lessen racism you could just make it worse? That is what affirmative action is doing to our society. Affirmative action was established to, “redress discrimination and racial preferences but instead have promoted it, rather than fostering harmony” (Sacks and Thiel 1). Instead, they are favoring the minorities and discriminating against the non-minorities, “a raciest past cannot be undone through more racism” (Sacks and Thiel 1). When collages are looking through student records they should base their election on who gets in off of all of the applicants grades. A student that has come from a ghetto neighborhood that has a 3.8 GPA should have just the same chance as a student who went to a private Christian school who has a 3.8 GPA and vice versa. The student from the ghetto shouldn’t get a higher advantage just because they are a minority. Also not all minorities are from a poor community. Several go to nice public schools and some even go to private schools. This is when affirmative action becomes really inequitable. For example: two students have gone to the same school, taken the same classes, and have the same GPA but one gets more points on admission because they are a “minority”. This is inequitable. They have worked equally hard yet one gets more points and one doesn’t even though they both have done the same work and have similar intelligence. Another vast factor in admissions is the SAT. Most collages acknowledge the SAT but don’t give it much consideration. At Stanford, “the average disparity between Stanford’s African Americans and white admittees reached 171 points” (Sacks and Thiel 1). Clearly these scores were not considered as both were omitted. Only the students with the highest scores should be admitted. Instead collages admitted students with low scores just because they were minorities.

I do not concur with people who believe that affirmative action is the right way to end racism when applying for collage. One of the biggest reasons that most collages use affirmative action is to try and stop racism. In the past there was racism and sexism and that needs to be dealt with now. Again “A racist past cannot be undone through more racism” (Sacks and Thiel 1). By giving the minorities more points on admissions and not giving the same consideration to the whites, collages are being prejudice against the whites. Collages also believe that affirmative action creates diversity on campus. Sure it does create diversity on campus but “ if diversity were really the goal then preferences would be given on the basis of unusual characteristics not based on race” (Sacks and Thiel 1). I completely concur with this statement. Collages believe that “only minorities can add a certain idea or perspectives” on campus. What about the average white person? They can have just as many unique characteristics as a minority can have. Believing that only minorities can bring unique characteristics is, “untrue but also because it implies that all minorities think a certain way” (Sacks and Thiel 1). Many minorities come from a poor educational system, but not all of them do. A public school with, “77 percent Black and Hispanic students annually spends $3,081 less then… a school with 20 percent Black and Hispanic students” (Pryse 1). With less fortunate education students still have to work hard. Just because they work harder doesn’t mean that they should be favored as a minority when getting into collage. A white student can go through the same education but get no credit when applying to collage just because they are not a minority. Not every minority goes to a bad public school. There are lots of good public schools and many even go to private school. Those who go to private schools get even more points than the same white student that went through the same courses. It is clearly not fair to favor minorities over white students who have equally performed in educational programs.

Affirmative action has not done its job by making racism better. Instead it has just made it worse by being prejudice against non-minorities. David Sacks and Peter Thiel state, “a racist past cannot be undone” (1). Affirmative action is no longer working. The students who we let into our collages to get an education will one day be our future workforce. You want someone who deserves to be there not just because they got extra points because they were a minority. Student acceptance should be based on grades and how hard students have worked including the uniqueness that person can bring to the school.