May 08, 2023 At 03:57 PM EDT
Newsweek recently welcomed eight high school students—from Denver, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.—onto The Debate podcast for a series of special episodes, as part of the publication's new partnership with the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL). These recordings were done in anticipation of the students taking part in a live debate on April 14 at Newsweek's global headquarters in New York City's One World Trade Center.
The event signaled the beginning of an ongoing content initiative for Newsweek called Mightier, which covers youth debate and asks students to weigh in on some of society's most pressing issues.
The following excerpt, which has been lightly edited, is transcribed from a podcast debate on whether affirmative action is effective in its current form. In the excerpt, debater Noemie Durand from the Washington Urban Debate League argues that, while imperfect, affirmative action is the best solution for addressing racially driven inequalities and systemic discrimination. The full argument can be heard on Newsweek's The Debate podcast, below:
Affirmative action has been in effect in the United States for over 50 years and was upheld by the Supreme Court in the University of California v. Bakke ruling decided in 1978. Now that 45-year-old ruling is being challenged by two Supreme Court cases set to be decided in June.
The immediate question is whether the Supreme Court should overrule a 2003 case that reiterated that race may play a limited role in college admissions.
So first, let's define affirmative action. Oxford says that it's the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups regarded as disadvantaged or subject to discrimination. And it's also known as positive discrimination.
Typically, it has been used in college admissions to award additional points to racial minorities, especially to African American students. I'm here to explain why this is an imperative policy to protect diversity in higher education and to address racism as a whole.
First of all, affirmative action allows universities to take into account the obstacles that students face in their childhood due to their race. This includes the impacts of historical discrimination, such as lower income, living in neighborhoods with more crime and drug use, and difficulty with access to proper food and health care, just to name a few.
It could also include the results of present-day discrimination, which can range from bullying and harassment to being turned down from professional opportunities due to racist biases.
Affirmative action is the best way we found to quote-unquote "cancel out" the racism that racial minorities may experience in their childhood, which prevents them from having as many opportunities as their white counterparts.
Second of all, it helps start to break the cycle of racism as a whole in American society. Of course, it's only one step, and we still have to take many other actions in order to solve the causes and impacts of racism, but this is a good step in the right direction.
Affirmative action allows more racial minorities, especially African Americans, to achieve higher education. This, in turn, allows them to get better jobs and into more positions of power, including important places in politics. Not only does this allow for more racially conscious policies and systems, but it also empowers the next generation of Black students to act.
Continuing affirmative action is a step that we can take right now to start breaking the cycle of oppression and racism in America.
Lastly, we've been talking a lot about how affirmative action positively impacts African American youth, but we've neglected to talk about the rest of the population. The truth is that making diversity commonplace in higher education and jobs benefits everybody.
Sure, it'll put white students at a superficial disadvantage for college admissions, but that's the price to pay for an overall better society.
A University of Chicago article explains that students learn more in diverse groups, and employees are more productive. Diversity in experience, culture and thought is all conducive to better collaboration and problem solving, which are imperative aspects of any good society.
Not to mention that a lack of workplace diversity promotes behaviors such as Black people quote-unquote "whitening" their resume, as one [New York] Times article states. This reinforces the completely incorrect idea that Black people should have to act white or tone down their Blackness in order to be employable.
The very idea of needing to quote-unquote "whiten" one's experiences is toxic. Yet that pressure would increase in a world without affirmative action. Continuing affirmative action is our best hope to combat the idea that ideal candidates are white.
Affirmative action was put in place to start breaking the cycle of racism. It's succeeded in part, and the work is far from over, so we should continue it.
The views expressed in this article may not necessarily reflect the personal beliefs of the author.
