by Taylor McDaniel

Imagine this—after years of hard work, countless hours spent on homework, studying for tests, and making sure you have the best grades in your graduating class, you check the mail for a letter from your dream school. With your family gathered around, you open the letter, expecting to words of acceptance and congratulations, only to find out that, “regretfully”, your dream school rejected you. Later, you learn that another student from your school, one with less merit than you by far was accepted to your dream school. The only other difference between your rejection and your classmate’s acceptance—besides academic merit—is the color of your skin.

For decades, this was the standard faced by minorities in the United States and it was this problem that affirmative action policies sought to remedy. First established for the workplace by the executive order of then-President John F. Kennedy in 1961, these policies were meant to enforce the anti-discrimination laws of the United States that would ban employers from discriminating against employees because of race, age, gender, religion, or nation of origin.

Later, academic institutions implemented affirmative action policies in their admissions processes, though in a different manner to that way in which workplaces enforced such policies. Rather than simply enforce anti-discrimination laws, colleges and universities in the United States implemented policies which saw the active recruitment of minorities in an effort to diversify their student bodies.

A recent study released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center found that a majority of people in the United States view affirmative action policies as outdated and believe that the admissions process should be race-blind, focusing more on the merits of the individual rather than the individual themselves. Only seven percent of Americans believe it should play a major role in a potential student’s acceptance or rejection, while 19 percent believe it should play a minor role in the admissions process. Comparatively, 73 percent believe it should not be a factor in admission at all.

“It wasn’t something I ever really considered,” said Caitlin Dunn, a senior in the Creative Writing program at Belhaven University. Dunn, born to a middle-class white family, enrolled in Belhaven University as an online student her freshman year before becoming a traditional student from her sophomore year onwards. She doesn’t believe that affirmative action had any effect on her acceptance to Belhaven, but had this to say about the matter, “I think that people who believe affirmative action is taking away their opportunities are overreacting.”

Dunn’s comment strikes at the heart of the argument about affirmative action and it’s role in the college admissions process. Oftentimes, colleges and universities implemented affirmative action by setting aside a certain number of spots for minorities. A recent lawsuit filed against Harvard University alleges that the school indirectly discriminated against applicants of Asian heritage by following this system, and many argue that affirmative action policies actually enforce the same biases it was originally intended to eliminate, though now in reverse, with members of ethnic majorities being the subject of discrimination. However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that “Affirmative action is one of the most effective tools…for leveling what has long been an uneven playing field.” The organization’s website states that “We need affirmative action more than ever.”

For now, the question remains: what role should race play in the college admissions process?

If you would like to learn more about affirmative action, check out the video down below by Vox Media, or visit the National Conference of State Legislature’s page about the subject, where they detail the origins and history of the subject, as well as outline the arguments both for and against affirmative action policies. Let us know your opinion on affirmative action policies in the poll down below.