What To Do About Affirmative Action

      Whether applying to college or for a job, there is always the thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way I could make myself more attractive to the admissions department of my top-choice college or the employer of my dream job?”.  That’s what Abigail Fisher thought. Back in 2008, she applied to the University of Texas at Austin. But what kept her out? In her opinion, it was the fact that she’s white, and she is now headed to the Supreme Court.

         Fisher, a white suburban Houston student, asserts that she was wrongly rejected by UT while minority students with similar grades and test scores were admitted, and only because of affirmative action. Affirmative action refers to policies that take into consideration factors such as race in order to benefit  underrepresented groups with a history of discrimination in areas of employment, education, and business. Fisher argues that affirmative action is the reason she was not accepted into UT, and her case is now going to be decided by the Supreme Court in Fisher v. University of Texas.  

          This issue brings up the controversy of whether affirmative action policies should continue. It's a divisive topic because many believe America has progressed so that we've become a "color-blind" society. Some would say that such policies like affirmative action are bad for democracy because they encourage divisions along lines drawn by discriminatory rules, thereby replacing old injustices with new ones and dividing our society rather than uniting it. It may be deceiving that we, the United States, are no longer discriminatory towards minorities races, especially if by 2043, the US is projected to become a majority-minority nation (US Census).  But have we really progressed? Although we made history five years ago by electing our first African American president, I believe racial discrimination is still very evident in the United States today, and affirmative action should continue to be implemented because of our nation’s continued racist ways. I think a diverse university, like UT, offers a better education to all its students, so I contend that UT is right to consider race a factor in admissions. However, Fisher and others would disagree. What are your thoughts? Do you think that America has really progressed enough so that policies like affirmative action are no longer necessary? Why or why not?