In what could become one of the biggest affirmative action cases in decades, President Bush and the White House Administration are preparing to oppose a University of Michigan admittance procedure that gives preference to minorities.
Affirmative action gives minorities and women an advantage or special consideration in education and the work force. In theory, admissions committees or employers should choose a minority candidate or woman over a white candidate or man only when the two are equally matched. This special consideration should not be given on the basis of quotas nor should preference be given to an unqualified applicant.
In a perfect world, race would hold no sway on college admittance or employment. But then if this were a perfect world, race wouldn't affect any part of society at all. Until then, affirmative action is vital to ensuring diversity on campuses and in the work place.
True, affirmative action is not perfect. President Lyndon Johnson implemented this system as a temporary way to enforce the laws defined in the Title VI - temporary because it is flawed. When used incorrectly, affirmative action opens the door for reverse discrimination. Using quotas or unbalanced racial preferences causes the very prejudice affirmative action is designed to prevent.
After both California and Washington State eliminated affirmative action from college admission criteria, the number of African-American students accepted to graduate programs dropped by 80 percent and Latino enrollment fell by 50 percent. This decision was intended to create openings for 'more qualified' white students. However, subsequent vacancies were not filled by white students, but by Asians. Thus, abolishing the system completely does not ease any of the alleged reverse discrimination.
President Bush asserts that 'racial diversity in higher education' is important, 'but the method used by the University of Michigan...is fundamentally flawed... a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students based solely on their race.' He continued by saying that taking race into account in affirmative action's original context is acceptable.
Critics claim that leaving 'any door open on taking race into account' will only result in 'more and more creative attempts...to accomplish what have been doing for years.' That is admitting ill-equipped students because of their ethnicity. It can also be argued that if affirmative action is eradicated, another program will spring up in its place.
President Bush is not attempting to push the boundaries of what is or isn't constitutional. Nor is he trying to make a difficult situation worse for minority groups by eliminating affirmative action; but he cannot ignore the inherent flaws in the system. By addressing these grievances, President Bush is not stripping the rights of minorities, but guarding the rights of a unified America.