Jordana Castro - Blog Post #3

Affirmative Action is intended to give an oppressed group of people an advantage. This attempt to try and create an equal playing field for minorities and majorities can be misinterpreted as reverse racism; when in  reality its main purpose is to bring up those being oppressed through opportunities. Overall it may sound like a good idea but it can still produce further oppression. For example if a student is able to attend a college with the help of Affirmative Action then they can be further alienated by discrediting their work and told that the only reason they got into a college is due to Affirmative Action. In this case Affirmative Action can be misinterpreted by the majority if they only see minorities being pushed up for doing less work. This can mean not getting as high grades or not attending a school as prestigious as the one they went to. But the truth is that the reasoning behind their not as amazing grades or school is the same reason why Affirmative Action was put in place, which is that minorities often do not have the same educational opportunities and support at their disposal. This can mean not having tutors, test prep or being able to go to the best school all because of the long cycle of family history in how ones education can be affected by one’s race and socioeconomic status. White privilege can lead to a better educational resume and therefore those with not as amazing resumes should not have to continue experiencing the inequality in their education just because of where they come from and the opportunities they were able to attain. These misinterpretations are exactly why Affirmative Action is necessary. When all students or individuals are able to receive the same support and opportunities no matter where they come from then Affirmative Action will no longer be necessary. So Affirmative Action does not create reverse racism because a students background should not have such a heavy influence on their education, and Affirmative Action is one of the opportunities minorities receive in an attempt for educational equity. Although there may still be some cases where Affirmative Action is  not used in the ways it was intended to, for example if some students are only accepted in attempt to make the student population ‘more diverse’, then that is where claims like reverse racism will be made against Affirmative action because the unfairness is true. But the source of the unfairness should not  be linked with Affirmative Action because if the intentions are not for educational equity then it is not Affirmative Action.