<p>If you can’t tell from my username, I’m Asian.
I’ve also been attempting to avoid the whole AA debate, but aghhh.</p>
<p>I am a firm supporter of affirmative action.</p>
<p>Yes, racism may have gotten better over the years, but it still exists.</p>
<p>Let’s face the stereotypes. I guarantee you that a large majority of people will think “black” when they hear the word “ghetto” or “gangster” and “Mexican” when they hear “illegal immigrants.” I also guarantee you that one black person has called out another black person for speaking in proper grammar as “talking white.”</p>
<p>I don’t agree with stereotypes, but they are there for a reason. According to a 2005 sampling from the US Census Bureau, 24.9 percent of black people and 21.8 percent of Hispanic people are below the poverty level, as opposed to 7.8 percent of the white population.</p>
<p>The dominant racial body in society is white (all of our presidents until Obama, most rich businesspeople, most popular celebrities) and you know the saying “the winner writes history”? The same is for societal structure. Those on top have the social system working for them. A majority are born into healthier economic brackets that give them more opportunities such as SAT prep and fifteen years of professional piano coaching.</p>
<p>Affirmative action is to make up for these discrepancies. It is to make up for those minorities being suppressed by society AND by themselves (because role models to prove the stereotypes wrong are few and far between). Society doesn’t believe they can exceed, so why fight the system?</p>
<p>It is rarer for the system to work for minorities than against them. I’m pretty sure we all like to think that every time a white man and a black man were both up for a CEO position, the most qualified would get the job. But that simply isn’t true–the job market can be political, and if you were born into a wealthy, well-connected family, then lucky you. What are the odds that your family is also white? Did you think of the stereotype for that as well?</p>
<p>Think of socioeconomic level as a ladder and the bottom as poverty and the top as wealth. How far would you have to climb if you were born into the top? How much would have you have to fight to get to the top when there are people already up there wanting to keep their place?</p>
<p>An opportunity to go to Yale, a school that actually has the resources to help them get out of that situation, is what makes affirmative action so important.</p>
<p>Let’s also not forget that affirmative action goes beyond race. It also was established to try and help combat sexism (the airhead cheerleader stereotype, anyone?).</p>
<p>Sources:
[Poverty</a> 2005 Highlights](<a href=“http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty05/pov05hi.html]Poverty”>http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty05/pov05hi.html)</p>