Chanelly Martinez

Writing For Humanities and Arts

Opinion Editorial

09/18/2023

Colleges without Minorities

On June 23rd, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled the ban on affirmative action. Immediately, everything was thrown off the equilibrium for minorities. From making the doors of opportunity smaller and smaller to minorities not being able to have better chances of going to better colleges, this new ban was catastrophic. As a minority college student myself who wants topursue higher education, this deeply affects me and many others. With affirmative action beingbanned, what is there to come in terms of racial equality in society and minorities prospering?

At its core, affirmative action was designed to give a helping hand to under representedgroups of minorities such as Black and Hispanic/Latino people. On the surface, it may seem that the removal of affirmative action is a step towards equality, but it is far from this. You cannot compare a minority who grew up in the Bronx going to a public school to someone who grew up wealthy and went to private schools. In many cases, those who grow up in poverty and don’thave the best education, struggle to prevail. Despite the minuscule amount of minorities who”make it out”, it absolutely isn’t without adversity, but now their struggles aren’t reallyconsidered in admission offices. Linda Darling-Hammond is the CEO of Learning Policy Institute and focuses on changing learning policies. Darling-Hammond wrote an article that focused on the differences of minority students and white students. This article also goes intodetail on explaining the percentages and differences between white students who go to privateschools and minorities who go to public schools. She states, “ In contrast to European and Asian nations that fund schools centrally and equally, the wealthiest 10% of school districts in the United States spend nearly 10 times more than the poorest 10%, and spending ratios of 3 to 1 arecommon within states. Poor and minority students are concentrated in the least well-fundedschools”. Education, specifically in America, is horrible. The inequality within the system is sad. In America, money is what matters. White students with wealthy parents go to the best school and even if it isn’t a top school, the funding varies tremendously compared to public schools where mainly minorities in poverty attend. The public schools try their best to hand pick students who they felt could exceed if given the right materials. Everyone should have been given thesame opportunity, but the lack of resources made this difficult. There would be times whereteachers in the public school would have students mentor their own peers. This alone demonstrates the issues in public schools, whereas in private schools with mainly white students, they would have their own counselors and many programs where students’ talents would be able to grow.

Nonetheless, many individuals who are at the top, feel threatened because minorities are now reaching them. At the end of the day, this all dates back to things that happened centuriesago. It is something people still carry with them. This is all about race and white people. Withcollege admissions taking into consideration your race and background, and programs being putin place to help minorities prosper, more and more of us are getting the chances white peoplehave in the palm of their hands. In 1993, the Washington Post came out with an article thatfocuses on various Americans’ opinions on affirmative action. One American, Shirley Powell, feels, “Blacks . . . walk around with a chip on their shoulder, like we owe them something,” said Shirley Powell, 61, a housewife in Angleton, Tex. “I don’t feel that we do.” Personally, people have the wrong idea of what affirmative action does. It is not to make up for past slavery or discrimination between genders. Instead, it was put in place to ensure equality in the workplace and admissions into schools. Another point that should be made is that even with affirmative action in place, the percentages of minorities in ivy leagues, specifically, is significantly lower compared to years ago. Even in corporate companies, the race that is at the top is mainly white. With more students applying to colleges, the likelihood of minority students being acceptedbegins to decrease little by little. Therefore affirmative action is essential to level the playing field.

Being doubted constantly is a struggle on its own. Being a minority myself, I have found myself questioning if I really deserve all the things I have accomplished. My self doubt is rooted in being oppressed and constantly being questioned on how we got to successful positions.Richard Morin and Sharon Warden from Washington Post state, “Many minorities expressed concern that white preoccupation with affirmative action blinds whites to qualifications of minorities and women, who become lumped together as “preference hires” even when they had won jobs or promotions by hard work or merit. Some also agreed with critics who saidaffirmative action sometimes produced reverse discrimination.” Everything has a downside andwith affirmative action its individuals at the top thinking that those that come throughaffirmative action, don’t deserve it. Affirmative action is taken into consideration when viewingyour application, but this does not ensure anything. However, when those at the top start seeingmore and more minorities in these top schools or jobs, they cannot believe that these individualsprobably worked twice as hard to even be considered.

To conclude, affirmative action was put in place to level out all the discriminationhappened centuries ago. Affirmative action does not secure a place in any college or workplace,but it levels the playing field by providing opportunities to those who are at a disadvantage.Without affirmative action, there will be a huge strain on our societies. Hopefully the government will realize how this just shows how we keep going back in time rather than progressing.