A lesson in fairness

The affirmative action debate is becoming more and more heated. Our own campus has been enraged with the cartoon controversy. Political talk shows have taken on the impossible task of trying to sort this matter out, with little success. I think if I see one more "Angry White Men" show on Donahue with people screaming "reverse racism!," I'll go insane.\nWe like to believe in the American Dream in this country. Well it doesn't exist. We do not have a true system of meritocracy no matter how much we wish we did. The playing field is not even, and maybe the real issue with affirmative action is that a portion of this country isn't ready for it to be.\nJennifer Hochschild, in an academic article entitled "Affirmative Action as a Culture War," attempted to debunk some myths associated with affirmative action that plague this debate. Interestingly enough, she found that whites have been hurled into a moral panic from political campaigns proclaiming that affirmative action is stealing white jobs. Survey data showed that less than 10 percent of whites claim to have been harmed by affirmative action policy. However, 30-40 percent had "heard about someone who was harmed." In case you didn't notice, the latter percentage indicates that we're dealing in rumors more so than reality. \nBesides this crazy notion that people are having their jobs stolen, affirmative action in college admissions is also raising tempers. Opponents of affirmative action argue that white applicants are losing entry to less-qualified minorities. I laugh when white women make this argument in that they are the largest beneficiaries of affirmative action policies in college admissions, although it seems that gender has been forgotten in current debates. \nQualified becomes equated with high standardized test scores, which are starting to lose their clout in the admissions process due to repeated studies that demonstrate flaws. Four hundred universities are already doing away with standardized testing in their admissions criteria (www.fairtest.org). In conjunction with affirmative action policies, other criteria such as academic performance in high school, community service and essay are being considered as better indicators of success at the collegiate level. \nIn this area many women and minorities actually score higher than their white male counterparts. It's also interesting to hear opponents claim they have the best interest of minorities in mind, because they wouldn't want anyone to feel like they got something they didn't rightfully earn. Hochschild's data showed that there is little to no psychological damage to individuals who feel they may have been assisted by affirmative action policies. The stigma is more widely accepted among whites. At the core of these arguments is fairness. Let's talk about fair.\nIs it fair that some students with mediocre academic performances get to attend prestigious institutions just because mommy or daddy did? Is it fair that a percentage of children in this country are able to attend well-financed high schools and hire professional tutors to help them with SAT preparation while others are crammed into overcrowded classrooms that don't even have enough books for all of its students? Is it fair that race often affects these scenarios? \nWe live in a racially stratified country, like it or not. Affirmative action is not some personal attack against white people. If opponents want it gone so badly, why don't they work to ensure that all children, regardless of race or class, can get a respectable education starting as early as kindergarten so that maybe college can be a feasible possibility without the aid of race-based admissions? Affirmative action isn't about special benefits. It's about giving people access to opportunities that they would not otherwise have because of the color of their skin, class or gender.