Editorial

Affirmative Action: a centerpiece of Lyndon B. Johnson’s failed Great Society. It has been the reason for many court cases since the first piece of it was issued by John F. Kennedy in executive order 10295. The basis of affirmative action is to give preferential treatment to some racial groups when they apply to college or interview for a job. No matter which way you look at it Affirmative action is clearly unconstitutional and has also been extremely counterproductive to those racial groups it intended to help. When Johnson issued U.S. Executive Order 11246 and Executive Order 11375 in 1965, he regarded them to be great steps forward for equality in America. While this may have been true for a few years when laws like this were actually needed because of discrimination, they have quickly turned in to the most unfair laws in modern American history.
The first reason why Affirmative action must be dismantled is because it is actually hurting the racial groups that it is intended to help. Renowned economist Thomas Sowell claimed that affirmative action encourages slacking from the preferential groups because they feel that it will always be there to “bail them out.” This causes another problem and that is that under qualified minorities may get in to more difficult colleges that they can handle and thus lead to failure. A Princeton study clearly shows this, saying that if a college applicant is Black an average of 230 points are added to their SAT score, which is even higher than the amount of points typically added to a recruited athlete’s SAT. Furthermore when a minority is hired there often seems to be a cloud hanging over their hiring, regardless if they are qualified or not.
The second reason why affirmative action must be dismantled is because it is also hurting the racial groups that it is not intended to cover, such as whites and asians. The simple fact is that affirmative action is discrimination based on race. If it were white people gaining from this act instead of other minorities it would be an absolute outrage. White people and asians that are very qualified often get passed over for jobs because employers must hire a set number of minorities. The right thing to do would be to pull the plug on the whole program and let the more qualified person win because minorities clearly are able to compete without these laws.