In recent discussions of America, a controversial issue has been whether the American educational system is rigged in favor of privileged white Americans. Like a stubborn rash I cannot escape the ever popular idea of “White Privilege” on the major news networks or talk shows. In other words, whether you feel guilty about it or not, if you are white you cannot deny you have received benefits purely from the color of your skin. These political pundits point to examples such as, of the 1,602,480 Bachelor degrees given out between 2009-2010 only about ten percent of those were received by black students or that the black unemployment rate is double that of the unemployment for whites. Let me explain to you why these pundits are wrong.
COLLEGE=JOB
First let’s delve deeper into the issue of unemployment since having a job is usually an outcome of someone’s college career. How does someone secure a job? Well typically the criteria of a job is a specific set of skills that the applicant has to possess in order to complete the task of the position. If you are more qualified than your competitors for the job or if you apply before them then more times than not you will receive the job. In addition, most advanced careers that people will ultimately need in order to support their families require some sort of degree. These degrees are given out by colleges. Now the whole idea of job competition seems pretty straight-forward and fair, except for one part. The college degree. A tremendous amount of people believe that wealthy white kids some how have it easier because of the color of their skin. Anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about has never heard of Affirmative Action.
Affirmative Action was created in a time in America where white privilege actually existed. Whites had extra rights that were given to them solely because of the color of their skin. This undoubtedly was wrong. American Government officials and American citizens began to become enlightened and they corrected this issue with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other bills. To further make sure racial prejudices were not apart of the fabric of America, President JFK signed the Executive Order which first listed the term Affirmative Action. He stated America will have “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin” (Affirmative Action Link). As time went on Colleges began to insert this method into their application process.
NOT WHAT JFK INTENDED
We live in a time now where minority students, based purely on their race or color of their skin, get more attention from college admissions reps than do the white students who make up the majority. This is a fact. If you take a quick look back at JFK’s quote you can tell that the college process now is in stark contrast with the original intentions of the Affirmative Action order. At some point in time the words of JFK were distorted to mean that in order to repay the debts of those minorities who suffered during the civil rights era, we should unfairly show prejudice toward white Americans and make it harder for them to get into college compared to their minority counter parts. I am in no way ignoring the fact that minority Americans, especially Black Americans, were treated unfairly during the Civil Rights Era, but what I am suggesting is that two wrongs do not make a right. You cannot make up for the time in which Black Americans were mistreated by mistreating White Americans nowadays.
SET UP FOR SUCCESS
Although, some would continue to argue that the reason minority students get more attention during the college admission process is because the schooling of students leading up to college is not equal among all people. And, without a doubt, I would agree. Of course everyone’s lives are not the same. Some people are wealthy and can afford to go to better schools with better teachers, and others are not as well off and only have the option of attending a public school, many of which, specifically in poor inner cities, are not quality schools. But this has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with financial means. But is it wrong that some people have the ability to attend better high schools, which will in turn prepare them better for college, just because they have the money to do so?
FAIR DOESN’T MEAN EQUAL
I would like to suggest a metaphor that I hope will answer that question. Dinesh D’Souza, a member of Ronald Reagan’s administration in the eighties, a successful movie producer, and a political debater compared the idea of the “American Dream” to a track race. A fair track race, such as America was intended to be, is when a straight line is drawn on the track,
everyone begins to run once the gun is fired, and whoever is the first to cross the finish line is the winner. Everyone would agree that would be a fair and just track race. But no one would go and argue well since runner number one had a treadmill in his basement that he could train on and runner number two could only run around his block that the race was unfair. In short, everyone encounters different circumstances in life, but what matters is how you perform once in the competition, or in our case the American Education System.
LOOKING FORWARD
Please do not misunderstand me. I recognize the problem of people attending inadequate schools, and I also recognize the difficulties that come with growing up in an poor family. I believe that when students apply to college their previous schooling and their financial status should be taken into account, but what should be left out is the color of one’s skin. It ultimately has no affect on the student’s ability to qualify for college, but only serves as a way for us as Americans to revert back to the unjust and racially biased ways of the past.