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Jeffrey Green Hon. American Studies 24 January 2012 The Affirmative Action War Goes On SUMMARY  Last month the Obama administration gave important guidance to colleges and universities on how to increase racial diversity within the school. This guidance was given so that colleges could find a way to squeeze through the narrow legal passage that the Supreme Court allows. This advice is opposite of the views given by the Bush Administration on the matters of affirmative action. Race programs in colleges have been fought against since the 1970’s when the Supreme Court banned colleges to admit students based on individual attributes. However, the fight has not ended in the Courts, in March the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will reassess its ruling on an affirmative action case that was shot down last summer in Michigan. In the Fifth Circuit a ruling for the admissions of the University of Texas at Austin could be examined by the Supreme Court since the university’s examination process included 1/5th of their students being admitted based on race. A similar case will be reexamined in the Ninth Circuit in California. All of these cased could be tried before the Supreme Court soon even though 4 of the Justices are conservatives that state even narrowly tailored programs would be illegal. REFLECTION  Since it is still against the law to have and use such programs for college admissions, it is difficult to say how many of these cases have been passed through the appeals courts since the 1970’s when the Supreme Court restricted the use of programs at universities. I feel that it would be very easy for a college to find out the race and gender of the applicants. With all of the modern technology a college could most likely access information about an applicant in a few seconds. Colleges should not fall into this temptation however because there could be many implications of trying to find out the race of an individual. Colleges could very easily gain from diversifying their campus like diversity may not occur on its own in some universities, or it could compensate for the years of discrimination and hatred between races otherwise. Or let’s look at this from the other side, some students who are admitted to schools for their race or gender may not be able to live up to the academic standards of such colleges, also knowing that they got into a university because of their race might be condescending to students and might worsen the problem. I think that students should be accepted to schools based only on the work they have accomplished to get there. Race should not take over scores and grades in college admissions. EVALUATION  In the end this argument is not close to being over with. Many colleges want to diversify their schools by taking a more forced approach to the problem. The current Obama Administration supports find areas within the law that schools could further the diversification and programs. The Supreme Court Justices are not ready and currently support Affirmative Action. What would have triggered such a quick reaction by colleges to push for a court ruling on the diversity programs in admissions? A new presidential administration could very well set the tone for the upcoming decisions made on this topic and decide a better way of finding passages through this conflict. On another note, when the civil rights movement took place in the 1960’s, did the black people want to be set apart from the whites or did they want to be equal (even in schooling and college)? So why are we trying to discriminate now?

Questions 1. Why have these debates sparked up so quickly within colleges? 2. Are American college’s predominantly one race? 3. What will Affirmative Action do that is not currently in place by the law? 4. Can a presidential administration really change the opinion of the colleges? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5. What will the Supreme Court Case bring up about college admissions? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">6. Is this just discrimination against race?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"BalancedPolitics.org - Affirmative Action (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Advantages & Disadvantages)." //BalancedPolitics.org - Free Balanced, Non-Partisan Discussion of Political & Social Issues for Debate (Pros and Cons - Decision Making Politics)//. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <http://www.balancedpolitics.org/affirmative_action.htm>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"The Affirmative Action War Goes On." Editorial. //New York Times// 21 Jan. 2012. //New York// //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Times Opinion Pages //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">. 21 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/the-affirmative-action-war-goes-on.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=diversity&st=cse>.