Affirmative Action is again being called into question, as the seeds for a national debate may have been planted in Ann Arbor, Mich. Two white students at the University of Michigan, claiming to have been denied undergraduate acceptance because they are not minorities, have filed suit against the school claiming to be victims of "reverse discrimination." The students recently filed a writ of certiorari, which would bypass the Sixth Court of Appeals, where the case is still pending, and take the issue directly to the Supreme Court.
The University of Michigan Law School's race-based policy was also challenged under a separate lawsuit that is now before the Court. If the Supreme Court were to grant certiorari and consider Michigan's two cases in conjunction, the decision could seal the fate of affirmative action. Many fear that the Supreme Court will not merely address the racial policies in question, but will use the cases as an opportunity to dismantle affirmative action entirely.
While affirmative action has been a thorny political issue since its inception, the possibility of the policy's demise should cause Americans to consider: How far has the country come in terms of racial equality and educational opportunity since 1978 and how much of that progress can be traced to affirmative action policies? Race-based policies were designed to remedy vestiges of discrimination, rectify disparate educational and economic opportunities and promote diversity on college campuses. Initially intended to be a short-term boost for the disadvantaged, the policy has persisted in a wide variety of forms and its implementation has had both positive and negative consequences for individuals of all races.
Specific affirmative action policies clearly are constitutionally suspect and require re-examination. Under such systems, less qualified students are often admitted simply to fulfill quotas, thus precluding more qualified students from admission. Such policies violate notions of fairness and the idea that people should be judged on the basis of their hard work, not the color of their skin.
Despite such valid objections, the fact remains that the educational playing field is not level. The issue is not race alone, but economic and social inequalities that disproportionately affect this country's minorities. This fact is often neglected in pursuing solely race-based admissions policies. In the case of two students with comparable records and similar grades, if one student is white and the other is an underrepresented minority, the latter perhaps should receive preference in the interest of enhancing campus diversity.
Race is useful as one factor among many in any admissions decision - each candidate should be evaluated individually, not independent of the "numbers," but not entirely determined by them either. Such an approach enables race consideration in the interest of diversity and mitigating inequality, while preserving the need for fairness. Although our current system of affirmative action needs fixing, America is not at the point where we can simply overturn a system that can pay enormous dividends to society.
