7 Criticisms Of Affirmative Action That Have Been Thoroughly Disproved

While the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates over the future of race in college admissions in the second re-hearing of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, Casey Quinlan of ThinkProgress has published an article that debunks seven myths about affirmative action. Justice Scalia even insinuated that black students would attend "lesser" schools where they may be a better match academically. Unfortunately, his comments promotes misunderstanding of why diversity, particularly access, is an educational benefit. Here is the list below (click on the link for further explanation):

1. Students of color will be treated as undeserving. People will believe they didn’t get admitted on their own merit.
2. Black and Hispanic students can’t succeed at a selective college.
3. Asian students are harmed by affirmative action.
4. Diversity isn’t valuable enough to students to justify upholding the policy.
5. A perfect system would only admit students of color of low socioeconomic status.
6. It’s racial discrimination, because if we were fair, we’d admit students based on their academic strength.
7. We can use affirmative action policies for class to achieve the same results