Race in Education

Affimative action began in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive order 10925 stating that applicants are to be employed and the employed are to be treated without regard to race, gender or national origins. “Affirmative action is a practice that… takes positive steps to correct and prevent any under representation of protected classes" (Northwestern).It is an attempt to help advance qualified minorites, by giving them an equal chance in the admissions process. Affirmative action is suppose to diversify the student body, but by doing this there is evidence that some minority college applicants are accepted even though their credentials don't meet that of the nonminority applicants.In a recent case, California v. Bakke, Bakke was a white student applying to the University of California, Davis Medical School. He alleged that he was rejected on racial grounds and that it violated his rights of the Fourteenth Amendment. When Bakke's credentials were compared to the credentials of those that were accepted in the special admissions program, it was found that he had more favorable indications of better performance, and his race was the only different characteristic (California v. Bakke).This evidence suggests that colleges are holding different races to different acadmic standards in the admissions processes. Bakke, even though he was more qualified than the applicants in the special admissions program, his credentials did not meet the credentials of other white males that were accepted into the medical school. To conclude from that, Bakke did not meet the 'unspoken' academic standards for a white male.

Consequently, the use of affirmative action instigates the fourth pillar of race in the admissions process. Aronso...

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...ity of California-Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race in admissions, is more than 40 percent Asian — up from about 20 percent before the law was passed (USA Today). When race is not asked on college applications, the acceptance demographics are far different from that of a race recognizing university. At the University of California-Berkeley, the asian student body population has doubled since the school went colorblind. At Princeton University, where race is inquired about, of the 7% admitted into the college, 44% of them are white, and only 15% are asian. Eight percent are African American and 10% are Hispanic or Latino. The race ratios of Princeton's student body are far different from that of the colorblind school. It is obvious that Princeton is trying to go for a racially diverse school instead of an intellectually diverse school.