The Texas Blender

The Texas Blender

Presenting a Mixture of Opinions From UT Students

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

The Texas Blender

Because reverse discrimination is a real thing

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensured that there would be no more discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, or national origin. So why does, affirmative action, a legal practice, contradict this non-discriminatory act? Proponents of affirmative action support it because it is “the practice of improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past because of their race, sex, etc.” But if we truly live the Civil Rights of 1964, then affirmative action is actually an illegal practice all round, whether it be a 20 point boost or hardcore recruiting, racial preferences is discriminatory and excludes some whites.

Isn’t this this a hypocritical agenda that causes reverse discrimination? It’s not white men’s fault that because of that privilege and exploitation of other racial groups, their parents and grandparents thrived in the suburbs. It’s not their fault having tax money poured into their public schools, or better, have their parents pay for private school. It’s not their fault that they’ve gotten their way easy all their lives, just to be discriminated against by the same government institutions that are supposed to be nondiscriminatory based on race.

Affirmative action is actually quite ineffective. As stated by the brilliant Justice Antonin Scalia (literally, he went to Harvard,) students who “benefit” from affirmative action often suffer the mismatch effect. He stated in during the Abigail v. Texas case that “that most of the – most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re – that they’re being pushed ahead in – in classes that are too, ­­ too fast for them.” And he’s right. In the case of mediocre whites that also want to attend a top tier university, why should they be discriminated based on race?  I mean the only evidence that exists that getting an education from a top tier university helps improve social class of minority people is research from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Even though at the same time, this research indicates that white people are neither hindered nor benefitted from the type of institution they attend, it’s still pivotal to have as many white people at top tier institutions because their qualifications say they deserve it.

It’s not like the mismatch theory can apply to Abagail Fischer’s mediocre GPA of 3.5 and SAT scores because she, unlike the students who have the same grades at the cost of racial and possibly financial hardships, simply do not deserve any institutionalized help.

Despite the fact that many people believe affirmative action is a way to alleviate past discrimination, it actually allows racial tensions to increase. People who genuinely believe that all awards should be given as merit are viewed as racists. However, that is not the case. A few weeks ago, the Young Conservatives of UT Austin had an anti-affirmative action bake sale. They simply wanted to start a conversation about the discrimination that occurs to white males through the use of special preferences. It doesn’t matter that white males have not have to face racial discrimination a day in their lives, that they are economically privileged from not being redlined into poverty, and if they sexually assault a girl or kill nine black people at a church, they are troubled or a lone wolf. No, it doesn’t matter that blacks have been redlined into poverty, or that “African Americans are more than twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops,” because trying to level out the playing field will actually only cause more racial tension. The Young Conservatives of Texas were chastised by the entire university without giving them a fair chance at explaining their brilliant way of arguing against affirmative action or taking their feelings into consideration. As a matter of fact, affirmative action has raised racial tensions between African Americans and whites. So much, that Stanford, a strong advocate of race conscious admissions, now allows for African Americans to have segregated! How are people supposed to get over racism when such institutionalized racism still exist in college admission programs?

In order to bring real justice, it is important to disregard the 80 years of segregation and Jim Crow and the various mass deportations of Mexican Americans so that it is easy to also disregard their high need of additional resources. These additional resources harm both whites and minorities, while affecting the education of minorities through the very solidly argued Mismatch Theory it also causes reverse racism. Reverse racism that is institutionalized by colleges and universities give minority applicants an advantage (despite being disadvantaged, historically speaking,) and causes for whites to be disenfranchised from top tier institutions that are not necessarily needed to move up the social ladder. It also aids in the racial tensions that self-segregation cause, more so than the public displays of racism some conservatives do. All in all, affirmative action is simply hindering the advancement of post racial America.