Everyone deserves equal and fair opportunities when applying to college campuses. Affirmative action creates racial tension on college campuses in an already divided country. I believe that affirmative action does nothing more than divide society into separate groups based on race, class, and ethnicity. This division harms us rather than helps us and will be harmful in the long term. The college admissions process should be blind and America should provide equal opportunity to all. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There is no denying that there should be equal opportunity, but equal opportunity for students can occur without the affirmative action programs currently created. Affirmative action programs are implemented so that all groups within a given society or group have the same opportunity to succeed. A campus wants to be diverse, but there is no guarantee that it will enable diversity through the right methods. There has been much controversy regarding diversity on college campuses over time. In Deena Prichep's article, "A Campus More Colorful Than Reality: Beware the College Brochure," we get an inside look at how a University of Wisconsin student was photographed on a college brochure to ensure that the college represented diversity in its entirety. Colleges pride themselves on having a wide variety of students of various races and cultures, but how far are they willing to go to prove it? Diallo Shabazz, the student photographed, says that "universities have a responsibility to portray diversity on campus, you know, and to portray the kind of diversity that they would like to create." (678) Because of this overwhelming responsibility for creating diverse campuses, universities have unfairly allowed students from minority groups to enter their universities despite having lower grades and/or scores than white or more privileged students. This unfair system used during college applications is not something a college should be proud of and does not give them the opportunity to establish themselves as different because ultimately it is for the wrong reasons. No group of people is uniformly disadvantaged and the truth is that there are some people from minority groups who may be better off than others. In the article “The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality,” Walter Benn Michaels supports his point of view on cultural diversity and how: “Almost everything we say about culture (that significant differences between we are cultural, that these differences should be respected, that our cultural heritage should be perpetuated, that there is value in allowing different cultures to survive) seems wrong to me". (726) Regarding this point, I believe that if we pay more attention to affirmative action, we are also causing economic inequality and the gap between rich and poor. Michaels states that: “For thirty years, as the gap between rich and poor has grown, we have been pushed to respect people's identities – as if the problem of poverty could be solved if we only appreciated the poor. Economically, however, what the poor want is not to contribute to diversity but to minimize their own contribution to it: they want to stop being poor. Celebrating the diversity of American life has become the American left's way of accepting its poverty, of accepting inequality." (727) We are told that cultural diversity is good for us, but differences in race, culture, and identity arethey distract from the main issue at hand: that there is a gap between rich and poor and a disadvantage between the two. People have begun to correlate and intertwine race with inequality, so affirmative action in itself is used simply to help minorities financially. In Sherryl Cashin's article “Introduction from Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America,” she expresses a similar perspective to mine and even goes so far as to say, “Diversity = fewer whites, even in places where Whites are already a minority, both in terms of representation in the general population and presence on campuses.” (714) From the beginning, when he reads Cashin's article, he begins by saying "This book is about fairness." (712) I love how Cashin thoroughly proved his point and used the opinions of real life students to incorporate into his book. Coming back to equity on a college campus, universities should revolve around equality and pride themselves on being fair instead of just being different. Celebrating diversity does not solve diversity problems on campuses because diversity is defined solely by race and race alone. Affirmative action should be reimagined, and as Cashin argues, affirmative action as currently practiced does little to help disadvantaged people. Even if you don't necessarily agree with Cashin, there's no denying that he's taking a step in the right direction towards solving this problem. long-winded debate. “My goal is to start a broader conversation about how to create equity policy that can help the vast majority of Americans who will not attend Harvard, Yale, or the University of Illinois.” (713) To take the right steps, we must establish blind admissions policies and ensure fairness to all individuals. The more we incorporate equity methods into our system, the more we can see a positive outcome in terms of equality. Simply put, the point is that if you fall into the minority groups that receive benefits through affirmative action, there is no way to overcome the barrier placed on you because of your culture or ethnicity. This alienation between two groups of people, whether based on class or race, only creates resentment and foments tension. Tension is created among students when advantages are stripped from a minority group or when people outside that minority group come to terms with being treated unfairly. If we take an Indian native for example, he might have the advantage of getting into an Ivy League school deprived of him and take revenge by expressing his strong opinions and seeing how unfair it is towards him. Other students like Abigail Fischer, as mentioned in Sheryll Cashin's article, also voiced her complaint. Abigail Fischer wanted to attend the University of Texas, her dream school, without race being involved. He didn't want his lifestyle to be a determining factor among other contestants fighting for his place at his favorite school. Cashin writes that “your question probably ended up in the “maybe” pile, its occupants neither admitting nor denying in obvious ways. These are the questions that conscientious admissions officers agonize over. A strong, authentic voice that emerges from a passionate personal essay or a commanding letter of recommendation that rings true can make all the difference. In addition to high school grade and standardized test scores, UT considered personal achievement based on two-way essays and factors such as leadership, socioeconomic status and, the eternal bugaboo, race. (715) Ultimately, race was contextualized and Fischer argues that it played adecisive role. Many people can identify with this fight and want to put an end to these unfair practices. As we've noted, race certainly plays an important role in college enrollment; beyond that, there have been many Supreme Court rulings to try to abolish the use of race in admissions. Unfortunately in 2013, the Supreme Court decision called Fisher v. Texas expanded affirmative action based on race. If we committed to race-neutral admissions policies or didn't give as much preference, there wouldn't be the discrimination we're facing today. Entering academic credentials matter and this racial injustice should not continue. When a student realizes and learns that the only reason colleges accept certain students is to have a certain percentage of different races to appear different, it will affect them profoundly. Students may stop trying academically because of this unfair issue that is occurring. The more people begin to realize this unfair disadvantage, the more steps we can take to end injustice within colleges and universities. Overall, affirmative action is completely unfair and is basically a form of reverse discrimination. There is nothing good that comes from discrimination. Whether it's those who have been discriminated against their entire lives or those who have never had to experience it, discrimination simply shouldn't happen. The final flaw in college admissions is that we cannot simply take into account an individual's race and class and have that determine whether or not they will get in. Cashin argued that “race-based affirmative action buys some diversity for a relatively small number, but not serious inclusion. It does not help build a movement to attack the systems of inequality that are eating away at the soul of our nation.” (722) As you can see, we may think that affirmative action does good for our world, but in reality it harms us in the long run and deteriorates our nation. This shows that there is a difference between two groups of people and that one should receive more benefits than the other. The differing opinions on the topic of affirmative action have to do with the fact that there is no such thing as discrimination. People argue that just because their test scores are lower and they have proven to be less intelligent than other individuals who entered, does not mean that they cannot grow and achieve the same intelligence. People argue that university is where you go to develop, become more mature and experience things. These people who have struggled should be able to get this opportunity despite it being unfair. I contradict this statement by arguing that there is no need to become demotivated and not try as hard as others have because of your race or ethnicity. It's not an unfair way to live life and it doesn't give you any motivation to work harder. Everyone should work hard for themselves to create the perfect life they imagine and want to live. If students knew that they would automatically get into their dream college based on their race, no efforts would be made and no equality would be established. America is built on equality and freedom, so why haven't we already used that equality in college admissions by making race-neutral admissions? As mentioned at the beginning of my essay, the United States of America is an already dangerously divided country. These problems with universities and diversity are only attributable to the further separation to which.