Do Minorities Deserve College More Than The Rest? | Teen Ink

Do Minorities Deserve College More Than The Rest?

January 11, 2010
By Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Poor and starving kids in East St. Louis walk through halls laden with sewage. They don’t even have the chance to go to school half the time because the sewage is toxic and could harm them. More than half of the senior girls are pregnant and don’t care about life anymore. This is something that every kid that is working hard to get into a good college is thinking about. They are wondering if they won’t get into the college of their choice because of affirmative action. Affirmative action gives you extra brownie points on your resume, which makes you more likely to get in. Many teenagers that have great grades and test scores are not getting accepted because they are not part of a minority. The arising question is affirmative action the right thing to do or is it just making racism worse? Or is it fair that someone that is poor and came from a bad school should get extra points, because they didn’t get as good of an education as someone who went to a private school? What has America come to, accepting minorities just to have diversity in their school, even if it is sacrificing integrity and school pride.

Working hard your whole life and having a resume as long as the Chicago Towers is high and still getting rejected by a college. That’s what affirmative action is, it allows minorities extra points on their resume just because they are a minority. I don’t about you but I don’t think that is even close to being right. Someone could work their whole life to get into a good college and another person could coast their whole life and get in just because they are a minority. You should have to meet standards because it is not fair that this should ever happen to any hard working American. We should make sure that person that gets in on extra points is actually tries and doesn’t waist it, and if he waist it then they should kick him out and accept the hard worker. Sounds like something Obama would support.

True the people in poverty stricken areas don’t have the best education, but they could make the most of it and try harder. By trying harder and showing the colleges that you try hard even though you don’t go to the best school will set you apart from the rest of the applicants. I think they should look longer and harder at your resume if you come from a poverty stricken area, but not give you bonus points and especially not a lot. As long as you have good grades and try hard then they aren’t going to be beat out by some lazy rich kid.

Racism has been around for hundreds of years and will probably continue for a while. Race should have nothing to do with getting into college, it should be based on how you perform. So many people have tried to create diversity in the colleges, but is that really better? Do we want to accept someone that might not be as good as another person but is a minority? This could lower their schools average test score if you do this too much, but if you control it then it could give benefits. If you control it then you will have diversity and keep the high test averages. Besides when you use affirmative action it is just flipping the tables on racism. You just started to accept a lot of minorities but now you left out the middle class white person and that’s not fair. So you have to find that perfect median or else it doesn’t work.

Lowering test scores to create diversity in colleges, and sacrificing school pride to make sure the diversities get an equal shot at getting in. If you are trying to get into Harvard and get rejected because they accepted someone that isn’t as smart as you, but they are a minority that doesn’t seem fair. It’s not fair that the smarter person wasn’t accepted because he isn’t a minority. This is why many people don’t like affirmative action, but I think there can be a balance between minorities and none minorities. That is what affirmative action should try to do! It should create that balance so that smart people get a chance and the minorities that try hard and work hard get a chance.



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This article has 62 comments.


123Sesame said...
on Jun. 24 2012 at 2:50 pm
123Sesame, New York, New York
0 articles 0 photos 36 comments

I think you are making a good argument here. Certainly not all of those in minority groups are accepted into schools just because of their race, but a good many are, and I believe that is really unfair. I am going through similar situations at my high school.

It hurts when all that determines your acceptance into school, is that little bubble you shade in with your pencil on the application paper that says: RACE. That's what education comes down to nowadays. It's really sad, and I hope our generation can work together (regardless of race) and fix this roadblock.

 


on Jun. 2 2012 at 4:16 pm
DreamingOutQuiet SILVER, Round Rock, Texas
7 articles 0 photos 78 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Time and the bell have buried the day,
The black cloud carries the sun away" - Elliot

Oh if life where made of moments, even now and then a bad one. Oh, if life where made of moments then we wouldn't know we had one. - Into the Woods

I lived in a place where no one went to college and we where all poor white. Let us base acceptance on merit and let aid be based on finacial situation(which would benefit minorities anyways)

on May. 11 2012 at 6:47 pm
lovetildeath GOLD, Virginia Beach, Virginia
10 articles 0 photos 34 comments

Favorite Quote:
I'm selfish, impatient, & a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control, & at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.
- Marilyn Monroe

Good arguement.I can see what you are trying to say.There aare all types of poverty-stricken kids,black,white,latino.I think you should have to work hard to get into college not have it handed to you.Being a Black American myself,I know many black Americans struggle with poverty and circumstances.I think you are right though .This is well written and keep writing.

Curious said...
on May. 11 2012 at 3:14 pm
I think that this article is very one-sided. I'm not saying I entirely agree with the policy but try and see it this way. You are a minority and all around you, you get conscious and subconcious social messages telling you how you are supposed to be. The main one is  that minorities arn't as intelligent, so even if a minority is intelligent it's so much harder for them to overcome stereotypes telling them that college isn't for them and they're not worth it. For example, I am biracial and am doing very well in school but I was raised in a stereotypically 'white' manor, which is uncommon at my school. College isn't even a question for my siblings and I. My cousins, also biracial, but raised in a stereotypically 'black' manor are just as smart, or smarter than I am. One out of six of them went on to college, not because they are lazy but because of negative stereotypes that they were raised on. To overcome that is extremely hard so to even partially overcome it shows their intelligence even if their grades don't. I'm not saying I agree 100% with this but I'm just saying the other side

on May. 11 2012 at 9:11 am
bennyB PLATINUM, Memphis, Tennessee
26 articles 0 photos 63 comments
I see this post kind of like an escusse. you are right in the part that minorities are getting alot of points because of affirmative action, but that does not mean that non-minority students can get in to college. In fact there are more non-minority colege students than minority ones. so there is no excuse when it comes to college.

on Mar. 8 2012 at 12:58 am
AddictedToWriting BRONZE, La Grande, Oregon
3 articles 5 photos 124 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Writer's Block is when your characters get fed up with all you put them through and go on strike." -- Anonomous
"A Writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."--Thomas Mann

I feel you make some decent points, but as many people have already said, your argument is very one-sided; you don't consider any arguments the other side may produce, and you didn't qualify (words like "most" or "many" or "some")any of the broad statements you made, nor did you back any of them up with hard facts.  This, combined with your grammer issues that I'll talk about in a minute, completely kills any credibility you have as an author, and for the most part, any reader who doesn't toss your piece away at first glance will simply tear it apart in just a few arguments--as many commenters have already done.  

 

Grammer.  It's a big deal for any piece of writing, but it's especially important for this piece.  Because you're talking about your quality of work versus the minorities' quality of work, specifically how yours is better.  But at the same time, you're using incorrect homophones, spelling words wrong, messing up on grammar, and even leaving out words.  By making these mistakes, you've completely contradicted the point you were trying to prove, and what you wrote to be an argument has become a parody.

 

Remember to qualify any statement that might in some cases, even if you feel that these cases are very rare, be untrue.  It's like playing the card game BS or Cheat (hopefully you know the game so this analogy makes sense).  Unless you know that no one else in the game has an eight (i.e. you have them all, etc.), you don't play four eights because all it takes is for one person to have just one eight to prove that you're wrong.  By the same token, if you say that all minorities are worse students than whites (whether you meant it or not, that's the message that comes accross), then all it takes is one minority-status person to leave an intelligently worded offended comment to make your entire argument fall apart.

 

So, all in all, I'd definitely rethink this essay if I were you.  There's a point or two in there that are worth salvaging, but the way you presented them and your other points makes your essay very easy to argue with, and because of that, you're actually helping the other side of the argument.


on Mar. 7 2012 at 11:13 am
Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments
If you think I'm shallow then think what you want.  I can write another paper with true fact and my true opinion on those facts but you'd just think I'm even more shollow.  I'm truley sorry you can handle or don't like the truth, but I promise the truth doesn't go away.

on Mar. 7 2012 at 11:08 am
Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Excuse me for writing this as a ffreshman in highschool if you really want my opinion in correct gramatical format I can give it to you.

 


on Mar. 7 2012 at 11:07 am
Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments
It really isn't double sided i wrote this my freshman year in highschool so i could voice my actual opinion and I had to be politically correct.  I could write another paper truley exploiting what is happening and how it is not the right thing to do.  To adress poverty stricken areas, they are like that for a reason.  Now I am not saying that they don't deserve college and if they are truley deserving they will get into college without affirmative action.

on Mar. 7 2012 at 11:01 am
Zinkerman SILVER, Houston, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 6 comments
Actually I wrote this as a freshman in high school, and the fact of the matter is what colleges are doing is wrong period.  you can't reverse racism because pretty soon myself being a caucasion could say that I am being ratially profiled. 

on Mar. 6 2012 at 8:11 pm
Writer_Jordan GOLD, Ellicott City, Maryland
15 articles 0 photos 182 comments

Favorite Quote:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

You're right, it is blown out of proportion. When I was reading it myself, I did feel slightly offended. I am an A-B student. Many of those minorities can do just as well as the author of this...he's very shallow

on Mar. 6 2012 at 8:08 pm
Writer_Jordan GOLD, Ellicott City, Maryland
15 articles 0 photos 182 comments

Favorite Quote:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

I see where you are going, but your argument is really double-sided. There are not only some poverty-stricken people, but a lot! It just so happens that poverty is  more associated with certain communities, such as African American ones. African Americans aren't the only ones--Latinos get benefits too. I say that college help should only be offered for people who are having financial difficulty. Being half black and half white, I feel that benefits should be offered for everyone, and also based on performance. *not based on nationality!*

on Feb. 13 2012 at 7:08 pm
RyanTyler PLATINUM, Windsor, Connecticut
21 articles 0 photos 94 comments

Favorite Quote:
"A myth is a religion in which no one no longer believes." James Feibleman

Just because someone is a minority doesn't mean they into college just because they are a minority. I am black and have to work my butt off in order for colleges to look at me. In fact the SAT were created to keep minorities out because it was found that they have lower scores in that area. If anything it's getting harder for minorities to get in, not easier. I'm sorry that you probably didn't get into the college that you wanted, but just because YOU didn't get in doesn't mean that the people that they let in are beneath you.

The~Watcher said...
on Feb. 13 2012 at 4:36 pm
You know, your arguments would be a lot stronger if you presented them without misspelled words, grammatical mistakes, or irrelevant political sidenotes.

on Feb. 13 2012 at 3:03 pm
AndresVaamonde SILVER, New York, New York
9 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
“We are the bright new stars born of a screaming black hole, the nascent suns burst from the darkness, from the grasping void of space that folds and swallows--a darkness that would devour anyone not as strong as we. We are oddities, sideshows, talk show subjects. We capture everyone's imagination.”

Most would say that the largest majority of actual learning that happens at college is social. Therefore, with no majority and diversity of thought, belief, and background, students are deprived of a substantial portion of their education. I agree that Affirmative Action is not the solution, but even those who support it know that it isnt. Instead, it's a gateway. It is a gateway for kids who don't get as high grades as you may because they CAN'T due to their circumstances, and not because they are WORSE than you are.

on Dec. 9 2011 at 6:26 pm
to.hold.the.sun SILVER, Maryville, Tennessee
9 articles 0 photos 49 comments

Favorite Quote:
"You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." -John Green

*argument would probably be a better word in the first sentence; not article.

on Dec. 9 2011 at 6:26 pm
to.hold.the.sun SILVER, Maryville, Tennessee
9 articles 0 photos 49 comments

Favorite Quote:
"You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." -John Green

You had some good points, but, to me, it seemed more like a rant than an article. There's a lot in your ideas, but if you addressed counter-arguments more and used a more professional tone. You could really have a great argument here because it is an issue. I do feel like it's blown a little out of proportion, though.

on Feb. 12 2011 at 8:57 pm
SonOfApollo GOLD, Katy, Texas
13 articles 0 photos 40 comments
really??? I feel dumb

on Feb. 4 2011 at 6:52 pm
earlybird_8 BRONZE, Roberts Creek, Other
4 articles 0 photos 115 comments

Favorite Quote:
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

It's spelt "college". Unless you mean you got accepted into a bunch of works of art, like "I got my picture taken a bunch of times and someone cut them up and made a collage out of them", it's an "e" instead of an "a".

zinkerman said...
on Nov. 28 2010 at 8:55 pm
You make no sense?????? your contredicting yourself by starting off with what i said then saying that it is ok to have reverse racism just because of slavery???? no thats not ok you idiot