Arguments Against Affirmative Action

“Affirmative action is a very nice term for racial discrimination against better-qualified white people in jobs, employment, promotions and scholarships, and college admittance.” This quote by David Duke (politician) sums up the main argument against affirmative action. Affirmative action gives special consideration to minorities and women when being selected for a college or job. This makes it more likely for these groups of people to be considered than for white males. There are three primary arguments against affirmative action.
The first argument against affirmative action is that people should be chosen based on merit and not by race or gender. Just as it is discriminatory to deny minorities and women positions because they are not white
males, it is discriminatory to hold white males to a higher standard than minorities and women. Under affirmative action, white males must get better grades, higher test scores and have stronger job qualifications than minorities and women to be offered an equal job or college placement. If minorities with lower qualifications continue to be chosen over white males with higher qualifications, white males will eventually have the least opportunity in the workforce out of anyone. For true equality to exist, employers and colleges should be blind to gender and race. They should focus only on the merit based criteria for the situation. Doing this will help create a group of the most qualified people, regardless of gender or race.
The second argument against affirmative action is that diversity of opinion isn’t necessarily created by diversity of race or gender. If someone is a different race or gender than someone else, they don’t always have different opinions. There are many things other than race and gender that can influence opinions and beliefs. Although race can play a big role in points of view on different topics, it shouldn’t be a reason for picking minorities for a position. Diversity will still be created if only people with higher merit are accepted to a certain position. This is because, minorities of stronger credentials will be accepted over the ones with less. The race or gender of a person doesn’t play as big of a role in opinion as the way they were raised and educated. Therefore, people should be chosen for jobs and colleges based on their merit, not their physical features.
The third and final argument against affirmative action is that minorities and women from underprivileged backgrounds aren’t helped by it.
Affirmative action does not solve the issues at the root of racial and gender inequality. Only minorities and women from a privileged background reap the benefits of affirmative action. It doesn’t matter if a person is a minority or not, it only matters if they had an opportunity to succeed. The stereotype is that minorities don’t have this opportunity, which is not always the case. A white male who was underprivileged can lose a job, because of race and gender, to a black female with the same credentials that had a privileged upbringing. When this happens, colleges and employers are reinforcing the stereotype that all white males have everything handed to them on a silver platter, while minorities and women have no advantages. This is called reverse discrimination. Affirmative action was, in a way, created to make up for discrimination, such as slavery and suffrage, among these groups in the past. But, what it has really done is create discrimination against white males and reinforce stereotypes of minorities and women as incapable of succeeding on their own. This inflames racial and gender
tension.
These three arguments explain why affirmative action is wrong for this country. Although affirmative action may help some people, it can sometimes hurt people that have worked the hardest. The most important thing when applying for a job or college should be merit and not race or gender. Also, new opinions aren’t always brought through race and gender but, rather, differing social classes. Most people that are the main targets of affirmative action are not usually helped by it. Overall, affirmative action hasn’t done what it was meant to do, which was to help lower class and underprivileged people in college and the workforce. Instead, it has created discrimination against white males and increased tension between genders and races.