Sixth Week Blog Post

 Educational Inequality and Affirmative Action

Education inequality is directly related to white privilege. Due to white privilege, Whites typically live in better neighborhoods and have access to better schools. Berlatsky (2019) explains how White parents can afford to pay for test preparation, move to wealthier districts, and push for their children to be in honors classes. Because of white privilege, Whites have many more benefits in the education system. Berlatsky (2019) writes that Whites “can quietly use [their] money and education to leverage structural inequality in [their] favor” (para. 15). People of color are at a disadvantage in the education system, as they usually cannot afford many of the resources that Whites can; people of color also do not typically have the status that Whites do. 

Affirmative action was put in place to make education and jobs “equal” and diverse. Typically in work environments, White applicants are chosen over equally qualified people of color. Affirmative action was also meant to help people of color have equal access to quality education. However, the execution of affirmative action has missed the mark. I have found that both Whites and people of color are unhappy with affirmative action. Whites do not usually agree with affirmative action, as they are threatened by their positions of power being taken by people of color. White privilege plays into the protest against affirmative action in the sense that they do not want to “share” the privileges they have, as they are benefitting from inequality. While people of color do recognize, for example, integration of schools should be a priority, the mission of affirmative action is not carried out in a helpful manner. Reyes (2018) writes, “Affirmative action should be about reparations and leveling a playing field that was legally imbalanced for hundreds of years and not about the re-centering of whiteness while, yet again, demanding free (intellectual) labor from the historically disenfranchised” (para. 12). People of color are frustrated; while the intention of affirmative action may be good, it does not necessarily get to the root of the problem. I, personally, agree with the above quote- affirmative action is really not benefitting people of color in ways that it should. One interesting point made in Reyes’ article (2018) was that affirmative action is a way for White students to benefit from exposure to “supposedly unique ideas” (para. 10). Overall, I believe that because affirmative action does not get to the root of inequality, it has not necessarily been successful.


References

Berlatsky, N. (2019, March 11). White parents are enabling school segregation - if it doesn't hurt their own kids. NBCNews.com. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-parents-are-enabling-school-segregation-if-it-doesn-t-ncna978446 

Reyes, K. (2018, December 27). Affirmative action shouldn't be about diversity. The Atlantic. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/affirmative-action-about-reparations-not-diversity/578005/ 


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