AA report

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 209 banning all race based affirmative action dramatically reducing the number of minority students in California schools [5]. This has raised the controversy of whether affirmative action should be reinstated in California schools but, before one can truly understand the complexities of this problem, one must first understand the history of affirmative action.

During the civil rights movement, colleges and universities, in an attempt to redress the extreme discrimination and prejudice against minority groups, established new programs to aid minorities in gaining equality [5]. One such program created for this purpose was affirmative action [1]. Affirmative action is a policy that gives extra consideration to members of a minority group when applying for schools [1].

Schools did not only create this to correct past wrongs but, also for the education benefits of a diverse student body and to make admissions more equal [5]. In schools admissions, the children of alumni are given extra considerations to an extent far greater than that of minorities [5]. This greatly benefits white students because a majority of alumni are white [5]. Also, in school admissions, students who play sports are often given affirmative action. While one may think minority students would benefit from this, in fact a majority of students who get accepted to colleges and universities because of recruiting to sports are white [5]. This is because the sport that most athletes get recruited for are sports like golf and tennis: sports that are predominately played by white participants [5]. Schools addressed these problems in their admissions by creating affirmative action on their own accord and not because the gov...

... middle of paper ...

...dropped dramatically [5]. The number of African American law students at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall dropped from 30 to 1 right after the passing of Proposition 209 [5]. While the rest of UC Berkeley was not affect as dramatically, the rate of admission for minorities dropped 61% [3]. Similarly, UCLA’s rate of admission for minorities dropped 36% [3]. In the entire University of California system the rate of admission for African Americans and Hispanics dropped 18% and 7% respectively [5]. The number of African American students is increasing but, it is still far below the number of students in 1996. The number of Hispanic students is also increasing in the UC system but, it’s growth is not as great as the growth in the Hispanic population [5]. It is clear that the passing of Proposition 209 has greatly reduced the number of minority students at California schools.