In an editorial published Tuesday, Feb. 13, Ashley Samelson said, "... there are a lot of students, liberal and conservative, white, black or purple, who don't like affirmative action."
Ashley, you are right, and I'd like to add my name to the list. I do not like affirmative action any more than you do.
When The Primary Source or anyone else examines the issue of affirmative action in the college admissions process and concludes that it is a distasteful practice that falls far short of our egalitarian ideals, I cannot help but agree.
But here's where I do disagree. I disagree with the notion that if we would just get rid of affirmative action everything would be ok.
It wouldn't be. To argue otherwise is to ignore the reality and complexity of the problem before us. The most disturbing component of this new wave of anti-affirmative action sentiment is that it is entirely reactionary. Totally lacking is a careful and deliberate discussion of what the alternative to affirmative action programs should be. Amidst all this discussion of what's wrong with affirmative action and with the college admission process, we've forgotten to focus on what's wrong with America's educational system.
So, in case we've all forgotten, there is a huge and multifaceted educational gap in America caused by structural features that are within our collective power to transform. And though it would be overly simplistic to the point of inaccuracy to call this educational gap simply a "race" gap, there is no doubt that it is greatly "racial-ized."
To call for an end to affirmative action within our current social reality would be to allow the aggregate of the effects of racial and class oppression and disadvantage to dominate the admissions process even more than they do today.
A shift in that direction would predictably create winners and losers, and we can predict who those winners and losers might be. It is no coincidence that the battle against affirmative action is waged by those who have most to benefit from the fundamentally unequal distribution of wealth and resources in America.
It is irresponsible to suggest that we should eliminate policies aimed at alleviating a demonstrably serious injustice without at the same time offering an alternative solution.
Why is such an alternative withheld?
We can only conclude that the critics fail to grasp the gravity of the problem at hand or that they wish to perpetuate an imbalance that benefits them. No critique of affirmative action can be taken seriously unless it includes an alternate model that addresses the underlying conditions that affirmative action seeks to resolve. Otherwise, such a critique must be considered part of the conservative agenda that has steadily eroded equality within the United States for the past three decades.
I, for one, would like to see the end of affirmative action within my lifetime. But if affirmative action does end, I want it to be for one of two reasons: either racial parity is achieved or such programs are replaced by even more aggressive models.
If we want to get rid of affirmative action programs, then we have to abolish the conditions that give rise to the need to have to take affirmative action in the first place.
Let's level the playing field. I mean really level the playing field. Let's give every child in America a chance at a quality education.
Let's give every child in America access to the private tutors and Kaplan courses so many Tufts students enjoyed on their way to securing their greater "merit" which they now cherish as validation of their greater entitlement.
Let's make kids from Chestnut Hill go to school with kids from Mission Hill and see if Beacon Hill continues to refuse to aggressively address education in Massachusetts. Let's end the apartheid system of education by which some students enjoy the amenities of Choate while other students go through metal detectors on their way to classrooms with 40-plus students.
The sad reality is that America does have an educational crisis and it needs to be actively addressed. If not affirmative action, what kind of action will solve our problem?
While I have your attention, one last thought: if you're at Tufts and you're embittered because you didn't go Ivy, you might need to gain some perspective.
Pedro Arroyo is a junior majoring in sociology.
