Affirmative Action: Keeping minorities down for 30 years. Essay

     The depicted object of optimistic serve in college admissions has been hotly debated since its inception. Although favorable action was in the first place supported by the vast majority, that same majority is now beginning to wonder if there is a better way. Commonly asked questions include Is affirmative action still working? and Is there an alternative? The answers to each of these questions give provide insurmountable evidence that affirmative action in college admissions no longer fulfills its intended excogitation and that the only viable alternative is to focusing more attention on uncreated schooling for the underprivileged.      The most third estate question that arises in contemporary debates over affirmative action is, Does affirmative action still work as intended? The original purpose of affirmative action in college admissions was to eliminate racial bias in the applicant selection process and provide a helping pass to disadvantaged minority students. Has this happened? The simple answer is No, but a more precise answer requires more elaboration. Richard Rodriguez, the Mexican-American author of Hunger of retrospection and a direct beneficiary of early affirmative action policies, puts it this way, I think as I thought in 1967 that the down in the mouth elegant rights leaders were correct Higher education was not, nor is it yet, accessible to many black Americans (Rodriguez 144).     In 1967, civil rights leaders of all types began to pressure universities and colleges all over the United States to admit more minority students and hire more minority teachers. They claimed that racial bias was the nefarious culprit responsible for the low numbers racket of non-white students and teachers at these institutions and that these low numbers were unrepresentative of the surrounding populations. Affirmative action policies were born in a drive to better represent minorit ies in institutional America.      However, all has not gone according to plan. In an lying-in to avoid the label of Racist, colleges and universities sometimes give preferential treatment to minority applicants. This preferential treatment means that promising majority (white) applicants are oft passed over for less promising minority applicants. The term Reverse disparity has been applied to this phenomena and th... ...needed now is to focus all of our efforts on improving primary schooling for the underprivileged. Referring to the above cartoon, why not give everyone the advantages of the majority rather of lowering the standards to fit the minority?Works CitedBillingsley, K.L. "Affirmative Action Is Racist." 1995. opposing Viewpoints imagery Center. University Library. IUPUI, Indianapolis. 14 Nov. 2004. Cohen, Carl. "Affirmative Action in Admissions Harms College Students. 1998. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. University Library. IUPUI , Indianapolis. 14 Nov. 2004. < http//galenet.galegroup.com.proxy.ulib.iupui.edu/servlet/OVRC?vrsn=218&slb=SU&locID=iulib_iupui&srchtp=basic&c=15&ste=17&tbst=ts_basic&tab=1&txb=%2522Affirmative+Action%2522&docNum=X3010148224&fail=8192&bConts=16207>Detroit indigent Press. 2001. 14 Nov. 2004. Messerli, Joe. Should affirmative action policies, which give preferential treatment establish on minority status, be eliminated? 2003. BalancedPolitics.org. 14 Nov. 2004. < http//www.balancedpolitics.org/affirmative_action.htm>Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. New York fiddling Books, 1983.