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Writer Min Heejin
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Subject Gangdong's center : Hanyoung's Affirmatie action




Recently, there has been a huge controversy over a seemingly helpful policy, affirmative action. Personally, I believe affirmative action d,oes not bring any benefits. First, I will define what Affirmative action is. Secondly, I will deal with the common arguments of this debate and lastly will talk about why I disagree with Affirmative Action.
According to Oxford Dictionary, Affirmative Action is defined as 'action favouring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, thus it is a positive discrimination.' Especially, the term is commonly used as a policy that grants privilege to a certain group of people in the process of university entrance.
Moving on, let me explain what the proponents of this debate say. First of all, the pros believe that Affirmative Action provides equal rights for the poor, racial minorities, and ethnic minorities. They argue that social minorities are given less opportunities from the starting line. In other words, those of modest means were not born to be poor because they wanted to; Nor were the social minorities born as minorities because they wanted to. Therefore, these people are, from the beginning, put in an inferior position. And even throughout their lives, they are deprived of the opportunities that other people enjoy. Thus, they should at least be given a certain privilege when they are trying to enter University.
Also, the pros argue that the policy of Affirmative Action will lessen the discrepancy between the rich and the poor. This argument is actually on extension of the logic in the first argument. Well, by enforcing Affirmative Action, the poor will be given more chances to enter university. Therefore, there is now a higher possibility that the poor will also obtain better jobs and be able to sustain their lives. In the end, this will ultimately lead to the enhancement of the quality of the lives of poor people. Hence, it will lessen the overall gap between the rich and the poor.
Well, although I agree to some parts of what the proponents say, I believe that Affirmative action is not beneficial to not only non-minorities, but also to the minorities themselves. First of all, for the non-minorities, I believe that Affirmative Action is a reverse - discrimination towards those who are not considered minorities. I believe that even if they are more qualified, and even if they have put in the hard work, they will be taken their positions. For example, In 1978, a white male named Allan Bakke was rejected two years in a row by a medical school that had previously accepted less qualifies minority applicants due to an inflexible racial quota system. By looking at this example, we can clearly see that Affirmative Action is still another form of discrimination.
Not only that, I also believe that even the minorities are not benefited through this policy. Although the proponents argue that the minorities benefited since they are given more opportunities, I believe there is a significant drawback of this. Even if the minorities do enter universities though the policies of Affirmative Action, their efforts and accomplishments will be devalued. From then on, what ever they do, they will live under the label of Affirmative Action. Thus, the stigmatization of the minorities will become even more severe.
In conclusion, I disagree with Affirmative Action because it is not advantageous both for the non minorities and the minorities. When we think about the pros and cons of a certain policy, we have to really think about whether the so called benefits of that policy are truly helpful when we bring it to reality.
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