I'm White, Angry, and Against Affirmative Action
-- Continued
In effect, the solution by supporters of affirmative action is to
lower the school's standards so that they can accept a more diverse group
of students. This solution is ridiculous, simply because everyone has a
chance to do good. It is just a matter of effort. If a student is spoiled,
and does not realize how important an education is, he will not study as
hard as someone who has been brought up with education as their number one
goal. Family incomes have less to do with SAT scores than the efforts
students put into their studies. We should not lower our standards.
Instead, all students should raise their own standards in order to improve
our society. For example, the University of California in Berkeley has a
diverse student body with a majority of Asians. An Asian student coming
out of high school with a 4.0 GPA, and a list of extra curricular
activities would not be accepted simply because of his ethnicity. Instead
the school would rather accept a Mexican student with a 3.0 GPA. Why
should the student who did not study as hard be rewarded just because of
his race? Nobody has the choice of ethnicity when they are born, so we
should not deprive anyone when they make the effort. Affirmative action
also brings about different standards in grading. The National Merit Scholarship has one standard for African
Americans, and one for the rest of the applicants. This type of double
standards is absurd, because black students are not graded any differently
in the classroom. This also implies that black students are not capable of
handling the same material as the rest of the Americans are. This double
standard, in itself, is an insult to the black community. There are many
black people who want to be treated equally, without any special assistance.
By giving minorities special treatment, we are simultaneously insulting
them by implying they are of a lower class. As Judge O'Connor of Richmond
county states,