Affirmative Action or Reverse Discrimination?

 By: Luke B.

Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Unfortunate for Mr. King, the affirmative action policy of the United States is preventing that dream from ever coming true. Affirmative action, for those of you who don’t know, refers to the executive order signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on 6 March, 1961 and required that government take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group in areas of employment, education, and business.  Affirmative action was originally created with good intent, as a way of forcing states into following the nondiscrimination mandate of the Civil Rights Act. However, over the years its positive ideal has turned into a form of reverse discrimination, and due to its controversial nature, affirmative action has been the subject of numerous court cases and has been questioned upon its constitutional legitimacy. The idea behind affirmative action is that minority groups, such as African Americans, are not capable of competing with the majority race in the real world so they need extra help. This policy in itself is racial discrimination because it’s saying as a minority; you aren’t equal to a white person without special and additional government aid. Overall, the idea of helping minorities so that they’re on a level playing field is a legitimate government function, but should be carried out at the problem’s source and not where the problems start to become evident or visible. Affirmative action is used to help minority individuals get an opportunity for higher education as well as at the employment level. The way the system is set up is reverse discrimination because if there is one opening left between a white candidate and a black one, affirmative action would dictate the minority party receives the position. What should be done is to cut to the root of the problem and help to make their educations competitive so then when it comes down to that last opening it’s based solely on merit and not on race. The reason why minority groups and African Americans in particular have trouble getting into colleges is because their education before that is sub-par. If they had had a better education they would be able to get into better secondary schools, and then would be able to compete for better jobs. Currently the reason why minorities in general aren’t getting into colleges or that last position for a job is because someone else has had better education. Affirmative action, the way it’s currently set up, is flawed and punishes qualified individuals from advancing themselves because a less qualified minority individual also wants the same position. If Affirmative action was used properly, to not treat a race special, but to treat everyone equal, the job stated before wouldn’t have to consider race as a hiring qualification. Affirmative action was created with good intentions but over the years it has lost its relevance and should therefore be either rewritten or abolished.