Affirmative action is not the answer

Affirmative action as it is practiced today is morally wrong and often constructed and defended upon flawed assumptions. I recognize that I could probably fill 30 pages writing on this topic and making my argument, but bear with me as I will try to condense my points into this Viewpoint.

Before I begin, I rarely see a reason to do this, but for this topic there may be a desire to know information about my personal background to have an understanding of where I am coming from. So I will volunteer just that: I am a 20 year old white male from western Maryland. I live in a small town of 5,000 residents and attended one of the worst performing and most overcrowded school systems in the state. I come from a split family of few means; I vividly remember during the recession of the early 90's when my family was able to put food on the table only because members of our local church were gracious enough to donate food to us. Perhaps I was disadvantaged growing up in a situation like this, but I never expected or wanted any special privilege because of it. I worked hard and I've made it to Tufts University just like everyone else who is here. That said, why do I so passionately oppose affirmative action?

It seems that many defenders of affirmative action make arguments similar to the following (this is a direct quote from the Apr. 10 Viewpoint, "In Favor of Affirmative Action"): "We have affirmative action because minorities have never received equal and adequate access to quality education. Inequities in academic performance are a direct result of the earlier educational advantages available to whites." Both of these claims are exaggerated at best and simply false at worst.

I will use examples from my experience here at Tufts to make a point. One of my best friends here is Hispanic, lives in Southern California, his father is a lawyer, and he attended a private boarding school before coming to Tufts. Likewise, most minority students that I personally know at Tufts, like most everyone that I have met at Tufts, attended great public or private high schools and are from relatively to extremely well-off families. These minority students are not the minority students that are truly disadvantaged in this country and that could use the help afforded to them by affirmative action based admissions programs.

I would much rather see the efforts spent on propping up and defending affirmative action invested in improving public schools in the Mississippi Delta, in Appalachia, in our inner cities, and in the poor rural towns of the Midwest and elsewhere. It is these students, be they minority status or not, who truly need our help. The minority student who lives in Washington, D.C. and attends St. Alban's does not need the help of affirmative action. Yet I fear that too often it is this type of student who receives it. After all, the university is most interested, they often proudly boast, in promoting "diversity" on campus. So whether the minority student is from an upper-class family or from an impoverished ghetto matters little to them.

I understand that the horrible institutions of slavery and racism still weigh heavily on the minds of many and it is not my intention to belittle those concerns in any way. But we must also recognize that African Americans are not the only segment of our population that can make claims of having faced historical injustices in this land. The poor white farmers, the indentured servants, the Native Americans, the Chinese, the Catholics, and countless others were disadvantaged for long periods of time. If one wishes to argue that the severity of slavery was much greater, I would contend that the plight of Native Americans was at least as severe, if not more so. And if we're going to talk about cold hard numbers, and not percentages, then far more impoverished white families have faced injustices through the centuries than have minorities -- if for no other reason than by virtue of the fact that in the 2000 Census, close to 70 percent of the country considered themselves "white". Do I think that all of these groups need special privileges when applying to colleges to "level the playing field"? Absolutely not.

There is no reason to give any applicant an advantage in college admissions by virtue of his or her race alone. (And for that matter, because I know it is a counterargument of many, the policy of 'legacy' admissions is also baseless, unfair, and needs to go.)

College admissions offices often defend their affirmative action policies because they bring "diversity" to campus. But my question is: why do universities only care about racial diversity? Why not economic diversity? Political diversity? Etc.

Why not devise a system whereby college admissions officers admit an applicant based on his or her resume and credentials alone? We do live in a society, I thought, that cherishes meritocracy. Applicants could be assigned an Application ID number to identify them. Their addresses, race, gender, etc. could be kept on file separate from the application so that the student could still be contacted through the mail or by e-mail.

Tufts could be a trailblazer in adopting such a radically new and egalitarian admissions process. And while surely not every admitted class would be 50/50 in its male to female ratio, and we might not get that one student from each of the 50 states, and at least one representative from 35 different nations, Tufts' reputation would still draw a diverse applicant pool that would result in diverse classes, even if not in the cookie cutter molds that they are today.

And while on the topic of admissions, I would like to make a comment about graduate admissions. It seems that defenders of affirmative action, like the one referenced earlier, claim that the policy is needed to "level the playing field." If such were the case, wouldn't such preferential treatment no longer be needed once the minority student was admitted to a school like Tufts? If the minority student needed the policy to get admitted to the 'level playing field' that is Tufts, why does that same student then need preferential treatment again when applying to graduate schools? Both the hypothetical minority student and the hypothetical white student would be applying from the same Tufts, why should one get a special advantage?

It is time that we finally put racial divisions behind us in this country. If we stop defining things in terms of race, those racial tensions that still linger today will begin to finally fade. I fear that too often the current policy of race based admissions incites resentment amongst white students and just furthers such tension. Moreover, trying to put myself in the shoes of a minority student, I would be offended if I knew that I was helped by an affirmative action admissions policy that made the blanket assumption that I was disadvantaged simply because of the color of my skin. I think that for schools to make such an assumption is wrong, if not downright racist.

And while I know that my idea for an admissions policy based on strictly merit alone is nothing more than a fantasy, I would realistically like to see universities try to think outside of the box and come up with more egalitarian and fair admissions policies. If any intermediary program were to take the place of the current race based affirmative action system, I would much prefer to see a system that helps those that come from failing neighborhoods and poor families, regardless of the color of their skin. I believe that such a move would at least be a step in the right direction towards helping those that truly need it.

In conclusion, it is time that we all recognize that these are all just topical solutions to solving the deep rooted problems stemming from our ever deteriorating public schools. Far more time, money, and effort needs to be put into saving our public schools and 'leveling the playing field' beginning with elementary education. In the long run, the college admissions process is not the place for it and the current system of race based affirmative action is certainly not the policy for it.

Adam Schultz is a junior double majoring in political science and history.