Persuasive Essay On Race Into Society

767 Words2 Pages

“Race” into Society

Get ready… Get set… Go! Students across America compete in a race for college admittance, however, some students are given a head start that some students don’t have access to. These head starts are economic and racial advantages. Why is it fair that some students get larger head starts than others, or none at all? The answer is: it’s not. When you’re born, you are automatically given an amount of privilege, whether it be racial or economic. Sometimes, you 're born with no privilege at all and have to work extra hard to cross the finish line at the same time as other students. The only way to level the playing field is affirmative action, a program put in place to break down barriers for minority students. Affirmative …show more content…

The differing of opinions and ideas is essential to the future of our country. By creating more diversity, a college expands the range of ideas and cultures, which could lead to new creations to better the country as a whole. People with similar backgrounds sometimes think similarly. By adding different skills and backgrounds, performance will increase. An increase in diversity enables different cultures to learn about each other, which can reduce prejudice and bias. There is a large barrier between different racial and ethnic groups, so creating more diversity will help tear down the walls. The diversity of America has been steadily increasing, with a predicted demographic of no clear ethnic majority by 2050. With this rapid expansion of diversity, it only makes sense to increase diversity on college campuses to match the growth in the country. Without affirmative action, the risk of a dominated majority and segregation in colleges is high. This would put America back a hundred years to the 1896 ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson, which was a time of inequality and white supremacy. Why would we want our country to go back to something so …show more content…

Minorities, such as African Americans, have been oppressed for hundreds of years, dating back to the time our country was formed. Affirmative action doesn’t only mend the wrongdoings of the past, but helps fix wrongdoings in the present and future. Job applicants with white-sounding names get called back twice as much than applicants with ethnic-sounding names, even when they have the same exact resumes. This is due to systemic racism. Systemic racism is based on the fact that the “United States was founded as a racist society, and thus embedded in all social institutions, structures, and relations within our society.”. This means, that throughout history, white people have been favored by government and other institutions while minorities have been oppressed. Black Americans make up thirteen percent of the world’s population, but only hold 2.6 percent of the world’s wealth, while white people make up seventy seven percent of the population and hold ninety percent of the world’s wealth. A black female’s median wealth is $120 compared to a white female with $41,000. This wage gap is absolutely shocking and only possible because of systemic racism. Redlining is an example of a discriminatory policy. Redlining is the practice of banks and real estate agents turning away minority families from predominantly white neighborhoods. This is an example of institutionalized racism. The practice of redlining led to the kind of job you

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