Affirmative Action: It's not fair

Agreed. I've always thought the idea was a little counterproductive. This doesn't help stop racism - this helps it! If you want to show the races are equal, make Affirmative Action mean people of other races get the same amount of points on an entry exam as caucasions do. THAT's justification - none of this changing the direction of racism we see now.

That is so true. I went to look through the scholarships at my school and the majority of them applied to Hispanics, Native Americans, or African Americans. It's not fair and it isn't helping to stop racism. I mean, I havn't found any scholarships that pertain only to Caucasian people. All of the ones that I have applied for, I have to work for. Write essays, have good grades, be productive, etc. But these scholarships for certain ethnic groups, they dont have to do anything, just be that race! It's silly.

Like it or not, the fact remains that the majority of minorities still exist in underprivileged environments as a result of the intense discrimination that only ended about thirty years ago. Only Aisians tend to have a higher income than whites of the minority groups in the 2004 census: http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/acs-01.pdf
For the poverty threshold, only Aisians and Native Hawai'ians/Pacific Islanders tend to have lower poverty threshold than whites of the 2004 census. Hispanics have a 7.8 percentage, while Whites have a 3.9, for instance. Significant gaps *do* exist.

Because these groups have less resources and opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty (raised in poverty, low opportunities, so got a low income job, lives in poverty, now has child who is raised in poverty, and so on), they need assistance.

Moreover, diversity *is* very impacting on a college and a university. There is nothing quite like having students from different races come together to discuss issues from their respective viewpoints.

http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/katherines

Perhaps a solely financially-based affirmative action plan would be good for a while. Because that would still get the racial diversity and would discriminate less against whites.

Because the problem is economic inequity more than anything else.

I am going to have to agree whole heartedly on this one--the only way I can get a scholarship is if I had been battered or gay, and the grades hardly matter. I am a white female, and so far, despite the woman's movement, I have absolutely nothing on my side. No matter that I'm intelligent...if I'm white, its not right.

"Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity"
-Albert Einstein

oh cry some more about how it is so unfair for white people to be denied anything b/c i know how their attitude about this world is, which is that they feel entitled to have everything and, oh my god, its not fair when someone else gets something they should have! BY THE WAY, trini, Native Americans were killed for a reason. That same reason that I just said, because the people who killed them wanted everything. It was because of that same idea of entitlement and that it was their destiny to have every last tract of land for themselves no matter how many women and children were killed! Remember Manifest Destiny? Man, you people need to get over yourselves and feel good about what little help and resources are given to minorities. You people are the wealthiest, most educated, and have all the resources stolen from Native Americans for yourselves and your descendants...Selfish is what you people are. By the way those minorities who get scholarships do the same thing as you non minority people and work just as hard to get those scholarships as anyone else. It is not as though they are sitting on their ass being handed scholarships. Also i know for a fact that when I see the Native Americans who have gotten scholarships, they aren't really Native Americans...they are white people who exploit their great great great grandparents possible small amount of Native blood. Talk about a rip-off when you are like me, a real Native who sees some person claiming they are Native when they aren't, get a scholarship you worked your ass off to get, to have a phony like them get the scholarship. Now, THAT is unfair and it happens all the time where I am from. Also, it is proven that white people's education is better than mine, not because they are smarter, it is because they have more money for educational programs. The parents also have more income and with higher income comes less crime and stress. Simply living in poverty is a stress that affects everyone involved for the worst. Where I live and come from, I was just as smart as everybody and anybody else. Yet, I was given the gift of being Native American, rooted in the ways of my people and with that gift came the gift of having another perspective, which was the opposite extreme from that of the majority of the country. For that gift of a different way of thinking and living, I was chastised. I was being punished for something over which I had no control over and couldn't change, even if I wanted to. I had to deal with it then and I deal with it now. I can't change my genetics from Native American ancestry to white ancestry. I wouldn't even if I could! I am this way for a reason and the attitude in this country is so messed up sometimes that things like affirmative action need to be put in place to try to balance out all of the unfairness experienced from simply being born with different genes than the majority of the population. So, I say, GET OVER IT. MOVE ON. DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LIFE, I PITY YOU.