Your answer there is that the economic status of African-Americans and other minorities are largely due to restrictive governmental policies and residential zoning that went on before the 1950s that continues today. This may be true of some white families, but their poverty is more a result of the failure of certain private interests than the institutional structure of the government. I DO believe that all students should be given an equal opportunity, and that the current system excludes poor white students from some opportunites that affluent minority and Caucasian families enjoy. But there is no perfect solution here, there is no way to evaluate each student on a case-by-case basis and provide them with the academic funding and opportunities they require to succeed. The federal and state governments simply aren't structured to allow such an evaluation. Therefore, we have to develop a system that does the most good, and I believe Affirmative Action is that system.

quote trendyskaman

Your answer there is that the economic status of African-Americans and other minorities are largely due to restrictive governmental policies and residential zoning that went on before the 1950s that continues today. This may be true of some white families, but their poverty is more a result of the failure of certain private interests than the institutional structure of the government.

It is not the government's responsibility nor its duty to compensate for mistakes made by individuals. It is, however, responsible for ending the perpetration and reversing the effects of widespread injustice caused by social institutions that it condoned.

Affirmative action was needed at one time to ensure that all people, regardless of race, had equal opportunity to enter higher education.

Affirmative action now needs to stop to ensure that all people, regardless of race, have equal opportunity to enter into higher education.

It comes with the changing of time. Affirmative action, along with many other old policies, needs to be abolished.

I don't believe it does, because as I've stated previously in this thread, the proportion of minority students enrolled in several major universities throughout the country still do not accurately reflect the population as a whole. Until that day comes, affirmative action is absolutely necessary to ensure equal opportunity. I agree, once the education system is completely open and equitable to all races then the practice of admitting students based upon their race should cease, but we have yet to reach that point.

Now the fact that there are less minority students in universities has nothing to do with the schools being racist and preferring white students. Affirmative action was designed to get people past that obstacle. And as I said, that obstacle no longer exists. So what is affirmative action for now?

Huh? I'm saying that the enrollment in universities does not reflect actual population figures, which IS the point of Affirmative Action. That threshold has not yet been met, therefore Affirmative Action is still necessary. Look at the figures yourself, they're online .

Just for kicks, I looked up the statistics for the University of Florida, where approximately 95% of the students are from in-state.

quote

Total enrollment by race/ethnicity

White non-Hispanic: 66.1%
Black non-Hispanic: 9.6%
Hispanic: 13.1%
Asian or Pacific Islander: 7.4%
American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.3%
Race-ethnicity unknown: 2.4%
Non-resident alien: 1.1%

quote

Population

White: 13,341,532 64.15%
African-American: 2,613,628 12.57%
Hispanic/Latino: 3,414,414 16.42%
American Indian: 59,092 0.28%
Asian: 371,385 1.79%
Pacific Islander: 7,523 0.036%
Other: 711,373 3.42%
Mixed: 277,978 1.34%

TOTAL: 20,796,925 100%

The University of Florida provides numerous scholarship opportunities for minorities, perhaps even one of the best minority recruitment admissions offices in the country, seeing as how the Hispanic population in and around Gainesville is very prominent. In 2006 Florida admitted the largest number of international undergraduate students in the entire country. Obviously my criticism of the system in place doesn't apply to every single school in the country, there are colleges that actively promote diversity on their campus and the University of Florida has consistently been a flagship institution in that regard.

Also, the census numbers you've provided include the entirety of the population, not the population of college-aged students. It's likely the numbers are similar, but not necessarily congruent. The problem is certainly not as pronounced as it was even ten years ago, but from the numbers I've personally seen, I don't believe we're there yet. Of course, those numbers are admittedly geared more towards the recruitment of journalism students.