Affirmative Action: Should it be controversial?

     On June 29th of this year, a Supreme Court decision was issued in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard which overruled previous decisions on the issue of affirmative action. On the topic of world events, this is certainly a landmark decision. In effect, the decision is meant to end the capability college admissions offices have for choosing applicants based on their race — a seemingly sensible and progressive decision. But will this court ruling appear more sinister after being looked under the microscope to our country’s history? And why was affirmative action so supported in the first place?

    During the midst of the civil rights era, Americans’ views on discrimination were changing. APUSH students are familiar with the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. the Board of Education of 1954, which showed changing views from “separate but equal” accommodations by race to a more ambitious, “forced” equality. Jim Crow laws were still intact during the time, so policies such as affirmative action were viewed as necessary to combat the damage of white supremacism. As president of Columbia University Lee Bollinger has stated, affirmative action was meant to actually “take steps” to support equality rather than just “waiting to see what happens”. 

    

    Affirmative action may appear to be a swell idea, but has it actually been effective? It may even seem as if minority groups are less represented than they were decades prior. According to the New York Times, the percent of black freshman enrolled in colleges is still around a 6%, while the amount of college-aged blacks has increased to around 15%. It is possible that other issues in equity that were set in place after years of oppression have hurt minority groups in ways which can’t be undone as simply as it seems. 

    Another major question with affirmative actions is with the topic of Asian Americans, which brings us to the present court case. Recently, an increasing amount of Asian students have turned to blame affirmative actions policies as the reason why they cannot get into college, saying that the policy disproportionately discriminates against them. Others say that this is a white supremacist claim to try to get affirmative action repealed. The topic is clearly very controversial and debated heavily among American students to this day.