Affirmative Action: Keeping minorities down for 30 years. Essay

     The subject of approbatory serve in college admissions has been hotly debated since its inception. Although approving action was originally supported by the vast majority, that same majority is now starting to wonder if there is a better way. Commonly asked questions include Is affirmative action still working? and Is there an alternative? The dish outs to each of these questions will provide insurmoun check-out procedurele evidence that affirmative action in college admissions no long-acting fulfills its intended purpose and that the only viable alternative is to focus more attention on primary schooling for the underprivileged.      The most common 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 hand to disadvan taged 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 Memory and a direct beneficiary of early affirmative action policies, puts it this way, I think as I thought in 1967 that the black civil rights leaders were correct Higher education was non, nor is it yet, accessible to galore(postnominal) 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 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(p) in a drive to better represent minorities in institutional Americ a.      However, all has not gone according to plan. In an effort to avoid the trail of Racist, colleges and universities sometimes give preferential treatment to minority applicants. This preferential treatment means that hopeful majority (white) applicants are often passed over for less promising minority applicants. The term Reverse Discrimination 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 instead of lowering the standards to fit the minority?Works CitedBillingsley, K.L. "Affirmative Action Is Racist." 1995. Opposing Viewpoints Resource 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. 200 4. < 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 Free 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 Bantam Books, 1983.