by Matt Dubois

Created on: March 14, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

In America "whites once set themselves apart from blacks and claimed privileges for themselves while denying them to others," the author writes. "Now, on the basis of race, blacks are claiming special status and reserving for themselves privileges they deny to others. Isn't one as bad as the other?" Stanley Fish

This is one question that currently transfixes the American educational system, as well as all of us, the American people, especially its youth. With the increasing crush to be entered into the United States college system, tension is building over the relatively new issue of "affirmative action."

Many call affirmative action "Reverse Racism," used in the most negative sense of the term. However, can one really justifiably compare this "racism" that African Americans seem to be feeling to the mindless, ignorant racism exerted upon the black community throughout the majority of its history in America? Need we be reminded of the enslavement, the oppression that white Americans forced upon African Americans for over a hundred years? Even after being "freed" from this oppression, the African American community on the whole has not yet fully reached the same level of prosperity and equality, be it economic, social, or otherwise enjoyed by the majority culture.

Affirmative action, many say, is a step taken in a positive direction, designed to give the minority cultures, not just African Americans, a boost up the social ladder. By looking more favorably upon some minority applicants to colleges, colleges, the educational system is, in effect, serving to ensure that more minorities are receiving the education needed to lead a prosperous and successful career and life.

Others, however, feel this mentality to be flawed. Why should anyone receive preferential treatment over another, regardless of race? Why should a majority student, who perhaps has better grades, be passed over in favor of a minority student with slightly less outstanding merit? Race should have no influence over any decision-making process, including college admissions. Is this not racism?

The African American community is struggling into a new beginning, finally largely free of the crippling racism that plagued it for the vast majority of its time in America. Brought here on slave ships, against their will, the first blacks were slaves to their white owners. That is no more, and African Americans have begun to define themselves clearly, a culture within the larger culture that encompasses all Americans.

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