Affirmative action vs legacy admissions
66Affirmative action and Legacy admissions
With the inauguration of Barrack Obama, people online have questioned whether or not we need affirmative action any more because nothing prevented an African American from becoming president. The assumption is that America is now magically transformed into a meritocratic society just because Obama is president. Do you honestly think this affects the African American man trying to hail a cab in Manhattan on a Thursday night? Think about it.
It also seems strange that people would target a policy like affirmative action and not legacy admissions in the name of creating a meritocratic society because legacy admissions has been around much longer than affirmative action. When George W Bush messed up this country, nobody said, "hey, we should get rid of legacy admissions". When are we going to stop these stupid rich kids from ruining everything? Just ask yourselves, how many of the people who created this economic crisis went to college because of legacy admissions? How do you think someone as dumb as George W Bush got into Harvard Business School? Do some research and find out how many of these great CEO's got into fancy colleges just because mommy and daddy were well connected.
The point here is that we cannot get rid of affirmative action until we stop legacy admissions. Stupid rich folks are just as dangerous or even more dangerous than stupid poor folks because the rich still control this country. If you want a more meritocratic society, the first thing that must be eliminated is legacy admissions and then you can eliminate affirmative action.
After reading all this, what do you think? I would love to have a lively and animated discussion on this topic!
Other views on this issue:
- Why I hate affirmative action
My race has caused me some difficulties in my life. I come from a considerably conservative area, where kids from my school screamed slurs at me and spit at my brother when we walked past.... - Other articles on affirmative action
This is a hub that is about why affirmative action is not necessary.
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Well, legacy admissions and affirmative action in the context of college admissions is very similar. In both cases, people in each of the target groups can get away with entering college with lower SAT scores. However, with legacy admissions, the rationale is about keeping the alumni money flowing in and with affirmative action, it's about making the school more diverse. The thing that most people don't know is that Asians are not considered "minorities" for the purposes of affirmative action and actually need higher SAT scores than everyone else, at least in some ivy league schools. Daniel Golden wrote a great book titled, "The Price of Admission," about this:
http://www.amazon.com/Price-Admission-Americas-Col
You can read all about legacy admissions in that book.
This is a great hub! Some people will never understand what affirmative action was meant for. It is not meant to stop whites from getting jobs (like that's so damn hard). It was meant to give minorities a chance to get jobs they normally wouldn't have.
People say racism is dead because of Obama? Please. I was affected by racism in 4 of my last 4 jobs. And I am Asian so that doesn't make any sense to me. How can a minority group that I am in be subject to further discrimination?
Legacy admissions are a totally reasonable and fair practice. Each college acts in order to protect the interests of itself, its students and its alumni. Letting in more legacies creates strong, multi-generational family bonds to various institutions, which in turn leads to more money flowing back to the college/uni, which in turn leads to better facilities for other students and so on. Furthermore, usually legacy doesn't have a huge impact on admissions. The impact is exaggerated by figures which generally suggest that legacies have much higher acceptance rates, but that doesn't take into account that legacies are better educated and have learned the value of higher education from a young age etc...
Think about this. If your mom and dad both went to harvard medical school is it likely that you're going to be a moron? If you weren't naturally smart (which would be statistically unlikely), don't you think they'd buy you the best books, tutors, etc, and make sure you caught up and passed the rest of the kids in your class?
of course.... and then you'd get into harvard.
we must remember, legacy admissions has been in existence for years, so many people of color could not fit in the category of having family attend school, so it eliminated many, now, affirmative action provided an open door, just like the legacy admission, they both discriminate, but legacy admission is allow to continue its discriminatory practice. we need to look in the mirror to see the spots we have, before we call some, discriminatory.
@mmm
The only problem with your theory is that many of these institutions are already well financed and have huge endowments. Sure, more money from Mommy/Daddy alumni helps keep the university's coffers flowing and makes the administration happy. Subsequently, lowering admissions standards to accept my less-qualified Junior/Princess legacy into said institution keeps Mom/Dad alumni happy. However, you're just assuming that Junior/Princess legacy will do well because Mommy and Daddy graduated from X College and are doing well.
OTOH, you could initiate a cycle of less-deserving rich kids matriculating to elite institutions they had no business attending. Either way you cut it it's affirmative action. If AA that is meant to help those who have been historically discriminated against is wrong, then AA that benefits those who have been in power is wrong too.
Socialblu 2 years ago
I thought this was a very interesting hub, the only problem I see with what you have written is that you give the impression that Affirmative Action is intended to put minorities into particular positions based merely on the fact that they are a minority, as opposed to placing qualified minorities into positions. I don't know how the legacy admissions work. Is it also one factor of many, or the sole factor?