The World history offers plenty awful examples of troubles, which were caused be racism. Just imagine, that World War Two takes a 1.7 billion of lives, because partially it was based on racism. Nowadays the situation has changed a lot, and it is only we who can change the situation which is happening in the most prestigious universities in the USA. My personal opinion on racism is that it is incomprehensible how the attitude of one person to another may depend on skin color, and we do not have to behave any way that cause racism. Every university has special criteria for every student including results of GPA, ACT and TOEFL/IELTS, essays, recommendation letters, economic status and ethnicity. It is not so easy as it seems, since Students For Fair Admission association filed a lawsuit against universities, stating that Asian – American students were discriminated by a sign of race, while universities argue that they can have such kind of restrictions, because it was allowed to them by Supreme Court.
First things first, we should consider the idea that choosing people by race is not so clear, since racism could take place there too. Trying to defend themselves, Harvard stated that “22 percent of the Class of 2021 is Asian-American, while the US Asian-American population as a whole is 5.6 percent”. With that they tried to show that they support the ratio of the ethnicities in US to the ratio of ethnicities in their university. Having more of them would be unfair towards other ethnicities, who have more representatives. So, to accept only the smartest students, schools could have higher entering requests. To solve the problem of including or not ethnicities, they should have come with a no-race admission. Harvard already recognized that they put Asian American students’ personal ratings lower. According to the official statistics, most of the Asian American applicants have the lowest points for interview, which is not objective and is under the hands of the interviewee. This lawsuit is affected not only by students and universities, but between Trump and Obama too. Trump is trying to cancel all the actions that Obama did, especially when it comes to the equality, which was very important for Obama. Therefore, to support their position, they show backing to the plaintiffs. They strongly believe that it is not fair to use race in the admissions process and assert that affirmative action has too much power over who to accept and who to not, which even increases discrimination.
On the other side, affirmative action allows struggling groups to gain some knowledge, confidence and a chance for a bright future. By struggling we mean people who didn’t have a chance for a good quality education or were previously discriminated or hurt. How it works? Universities or any other organizations, have a limited amount of people who they can hire/accept, so they leave some places for people from these kinds of backgrounds. Harvard Law students Ivy Yun supports affirmative action by saying that it helps everyone by increasing diversity because “diverse workplaces are more successful, and that diversity in schools dramatically improves educational experiences”. Accused schools said that they have “a desire for diverse class.” They are willing to consider a lot of other criteria, including race as one of it. Many countries have standardized tests, like Chinese exam – Gaokao which is a main influence on the final grade.
I think that this situation is unfair towards Asian American students, which can’t be justified by affirmative action. We cannot give someone what belongs or deserved by others. I understand those students who tried really hard but did not get accepted, because of this race-inclusive policy. This kind of experience will only discourage Asian Americans to try to achieve something. It is understandable that wealthy and athletes get the priority during the admissions, since they bring money, fame and pride to the universities. However, accepting the smartest students should be the priority of the schools. That’s why I believe that at least providing some race-neutral options could help decrease the tension.
In a nutshell, every participant of this case: Asian American students and schools have understandable concerns and opinions. But I still think that it is unfair towards students to look heavily on their ethnicity rather than achievements. I understand that Harvard and others want to maintain diversity on campus, but they should achieve it other way around.
