Affirmative action. Just the phrase invokes strong feelings and has been the culprit behind political disagreements for decades. President Bush has brought the old debate back into the public consciousness with his criticism of the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program. But do people really know what they are arguing about? If you’re a minority, you are supposed to be for it, and if you’re a white male you are supposed to oppose it. These can’t be very good reasons to have such strong opinions about an issue that could considerably affect American society.
 
The National Organization for Women reports that President Lyndon Johnson originally used the term “affirmative action” in 1965 in his Executive Order 11246. This order requires that federal contractors must “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin”.
 
The 14th Amendment provides an “equal protection clause” which applies only to public institutions and prohibits discrimination based on race or sex. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits race discrimination in any program receiving public funds. So how does affirmative action work within the boundaries of the constitution?
 
In the 1978 case of “University of California Board of Regents v. Bakke,” it was established that in an affirmative action context, race can be one of several factors used in admission decisions. And from that day forth the debate has raged on.
 
Affirmative action has been used as a means to make higher education students a more diverse population. For the most part, this is not the touchy part of the subject. The debate lies in the fact that consideration for admission to a public institution can lie partly on race. For the most part, quotas are not used. A certain amount of points are granted for different merits an applicant possesses. Good grades and extracurricular activities are awarded a certain amount of points and if you are a minority, extra points are tacked on to your overall score where a white male receives no such points.
 
No one should be denied the right to an education. But, unfortunately, school can be expensive and competition can be fierce. The problem with affirmative action is that it uses race as a factor in making decisions, which is against the constitution. Some argue that white males have had an unfair advantage throughout history and there is nothing wrong with tipping the scales in the other direction. It is true, for the most part. But the unfair advantage does not necessarily lie in race.
 
A political activist interviewed the other day on the radio station KCET, brought up a very good point. He said that the problem lies with money, not with race. The wealthy have an unfair advantage over everyone else. He proposed that affirmative action be based on income status and struggle rather than race. This type of affirmative action would benefit people across the board who experienced disadvantages to accessing higher education.
 
Cal State Long Beach is fortunate to have a very diverse campus. The UC system takes the top four percent of graduating high school seniors from each high school and guarantees them admission to one of the eight UC campuses instead of working on the point system. New alternatives need to be discussed. The only way a solution can be accomplished is for people to take a minute to look at the problem rationally and educate themselves about the issue before jumping on a side and not allowing the possibility for alternatives.

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