COLUMN: It’s time to end affirmative action

    We as a society believe that equality is one of America’s enduring values. But how far are we willing to go to ensure equality? Will the ends justify the means?

    Affirmative action has been around since the 1960s. It calls for government policies giving preferential treatment based on a person’s race. Before the Supreme Court case of Bakke v. Regents, colleges and government institutions used a racial quota system. Today, minorities are given brownie points in the name of increasing “diversity.” Colleges all over the United States have seen an increase in minority representation, especially among Hispanics and Blacks.

    Even here at Utah State University we have affirmative action, though in a more mild form. The Access and Diversity Center gives pre-priority registration to students that are involved with the center. This means if you’re active in any of the minority clubs or you help the center out, you can register for classes before everyone else, even before the honor students. Think about it in terms like this. Who is most involved in the Access and Diversity Center? It is minorities and those that support minority issues. They started registering today.

    Whites I have spoken to generally believe giving preferential treatment on the basis of race is absolutely wrong. Many feel that this is reverse discrimination and that everyone should be judged on their merits, not their race. So, why this discussion not taking place? Why do whites in our community refuse to discuss this important issue with minorities?

    The problem is that white people, to put it bluntly, feel like they are “not allowed” to talk about issues pertaining to race. Our society has embraced the view that whites – typically white males – should not discuss racial politics. Whites were the ones who enslaved blacks for hundreds of years. Whites continue to put illegal Hispanic immigrants in harm’s way in the agricultural industry. For me, it was a white America and five white American presidents sending troops into Vietnam and killing more than two million of my people. Many feel that whites have absolutely no right to talk about race and racial politics.

    There’s only one problem, they do.

    Whites have a right to talk about race, especially when it’s about affirmative action. The policies of affirmative action work directly against whites.

    Under affirmative action you are not valued based on how much you contribute to society but rather based on what color your skin is. It is irrelevant how hard you’ve worked to overcome your circumstances. The only question asked to you is, “Are you a minority and if so, do you need help?”

    Minorities are no longer seen as people but rather as a statistic that was deemed morally intolerable. As soon as you pass that artificial number, you not only become useless to the cause, you are now seen as the enemy.

    Look to my racial group as an example. Asian Americans have statistically done much better, academically, than all the other races. Even though Asian Americans make up 3 percent of the general population, we make up 10-15 percent of the student body of prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and various UC schools.

    Instead of embracing the fact that a minority group is moving themselves up the socioeconomic ladder, these schools have responded by imposing upper-limit quotas. Their view is that Asian students are crowding out other minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics. What this means is that Asians must compete with each other for a limited amount of seats. Statistically, we must perform to a higher standard to be even considered for college admission, much less for a job.

    The real tragedy is that affirmative action completely ignores the real reason minorities are struggling. Racism is not preventing people of color from moving up. The truth of the matter is that the public education offered to poor minorities is absolutely pathetic and works to keep many minorities in the cycle of poverty. It is the government itself that is causing racial disparities.

    The only way minorities have advanced was not through government intervention, but rather through the free market. Under our capitalistic society, individuals are valued solely from what they contribute to society. Capitalism does not care about your race, class or any other irrelevant barrier. You are judged solely on how much you produce and how hard you work.

    The Jews lifted themselves out by embracing financial business and the Asians through professional jobs that required an education beyond a B.S. Only through the free market, not government intervention, will Blacks and Hispanics ever lift themselves out.

    Milton Friedman stated it best: “You cannot achieve good ends by bad means.”

Justing Hinh is a sophomore majoring in political science. He can be reached at justintsn10@gmail.com.