It’s no secret that people of color have the disadvantage when it comes to being accepted into a pristine college. This form of discrimination holds back people of color (POC) from achieving success at the top schools of this nation. To make matters worse, President Donald Trump is now suing colleges that use affirmative action for POC who begin to close the racial gap between them and whites at the most prestigious universities like Harvard and Princeton.
Donald Trump’s focus is mainly directed towards Harvard, who as of 2017 accepted a freshman class with a demographic of 50.8 percent of students who do not identify as white, along with nearly half of that amount identifying as an Asian-American. Similar data has been shown for the class before, although it wasn’t considered as much of a newsworthy headline as it is now. The only difference from this year and the last is the President who is currently holding office.
To make matters worse, this project will be run out of the division’s front office where Trump’s bias political appointees work, rather than the Educational Opportunities section ran by civil servants who are used to handling work involving schools and universities.
The case is ironic due to the fact that white people still hold the advantage in not only college, but in life. To even suggest that white people have it nearly as hard as any POC is a slap in the face, especially when it affects their higher education. There have even been joking, yet honest remarks made by popular television hosts on the topic: The Daily Show TV personality, Trevor Noah stated “Where? The sun?” when responding to the statement that whites are being discriminated against. Noah also sarcastically exclaims “You know how many times I go to colleges in America and say, ‘Hey, where’s all the white people?”
People of color have to try twice a hard and receive half as much success in school when it comes to their grades, extracurriculars, athletics and other factors that affect college acceptance when going up against their white competitors who for decades never had to worry about POC being a threat. Certain policies have even been put in place in order for white people to succeed, such as the legacy policy which accepts students who come from a direct line of one or more family members who have attended that very college regardless of their academic achievements.
Furthermore, there are factors such as wealth, whereas a candidate can buy their way into one of the top schools, or if the candidate is a child of an influential politician or celebrity, or even if the candidate excels in sports that are more often than not limited to the rich such as golf.
With all of these policies and factors put in place for whites, it is hard to find in which way universities discriminating against them. Those who oppose the actions of the president, like myself, have stated that this is not something worth being investigated on. That white people are just upset due to the fact that a POC has taken their spot in a pristine university.
Times are changing, and people of color are tired of getting the short end of the stick when it comes to everything in life. Obtaining a higher education is the one true way out of this problem, and into a life filled with wealth and the best possibilities that every human of any race should have the opportunity to receive. But now, Trump is taking away people of color’s rights to a fair education the same way he took away the rights of LGBT workers.
The problem is not colleges using affirmative action against whites, it’s that whites can’t handle diversity in a way that positively affects POC.
