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 * Blue Curry **
 * January 26, 2012 **
 * Hon American Studies **
 * Mr. Wimmer - Pd 3 **

**Questions:** 1. Do admission boards feel that this is a truly fair practice? 2. Are there other reasons Michigan feels the need to ban race-conscious admissions? 3. When looking for employees, how often does race become a factor? 4. Does America have the most diverse population? 5. Why has America always been prone to immigration?
 * Summary: ** The Obama Administration has handed down more guidelines for universities to follow to acquire a diverse school population. The Department of Education has said that the benefits of diversity add to “the educational, economic and civic life of this nation.” Also, the supreme court has established in cases that this type of affirmative action is really helpful to society in making it diverse. Some schools, like Michigan, have banned affirmative action in considering their applications. The disputed fact in this article is all about whether race should be a factor when determining acceptance into a college or university.
 * Relevance: ** This topic is very relevant to the course because diversity plays such an important role in our everyday lives. Diversity has been at the heart of America since the birth of this nation. Diversity is what makes America a melting pot of culture and races. Diversity improves America because the people get to combine everything they’ve gained or learned from their own culture. In a sense, America is getting the best (occasionally the worst) aspects and knowledge from every other culture in the world. This is incredible in helping America be a stable society where we can be a “Super Power” and understand the perspective of other countries as we fight to maintain a sustainable world. To survive in the future, all countries must unite and fight for what keeps the everyone and everything alive and happy. The best first step to reach this goal, is giving a country perspective and knowledge of other countries. Which we know is only achievable through diversity within a country. So in short, diversity plays a very essential role in keeping balance throughout the world and giving specifically America a better understanding of the countries throughout the world.
 * Explanation: ** A very important issue within diversity is racism. Today, people and organizations are fighting to insure all races and cultures are treated equally and fairly. For example, affirmative action has been in place to ensure the equality for all peoples. So in this article, affirmative action is being disputed when used in college applications. This is an issue because most believe race should be a factor while others think it has no place in determining what a student deserves. So, in the article colleges and universities are giving students opportunities, that they otherwise would not deserve, because their race has become a factor. People are fighting for the belief that this is making the American culture fair and equal, but in reality this is taking opportunities away from the people that deserve them. In race-conscious admissions, educators are disregarding the credentials that students earn and considering the fact of whether these students are part of a different race. This severely effects diversity in the American culture in a good way. This is helping minorities to receive the same education and treatment as the majority of people. This is to help improve their standards of education so the country will have an equal intelligence level. So, this helps in the aspect of the future because it helps minorities develop and improve to the majority’s standards. But, this country was founded on the ideas of freedom and I believe giving minorities a “handicap” to keep up with the majority is morally and ethically wrong. Everyone deserves the same chances and opportunities, but if you fail to utilize them there shouldn’t be a “wild-card” that still allows you to succeed when you had not earned or deserved the honor. Most affirmative action is beneficial to the American way of life, but this affirmative action to support diversity in colleges is destroying the basic concepts we founded this country upon.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Affirmative Action in the United States." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_the_United_States>

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Multiculturalism." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism>.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"The Affirmative Action War Goes On." The New York Times. N.p., 21 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/the-affirmative-action-war-goes-on.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=diversity&st=cse>.