Andy Hudlow
THE SANTA CLARA
February 18, 2016

Racism still exists in our college and university systems, preventing students from gaining admission to schools they have worked hard to attend over others who may not be as deserving. Photo: The Common App.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” is probably most famous for its quote: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

This quote embodies what most people want their world to look like. A world where people are judged solely for who they are as individuals. We have made great strides in race relations since MLK’s day, but there’s one part of American society that  continues to treat individuals like numbers filling a quota.

College admissions offices across the country are the most blatantly racist institutions in modern day society.

They systematically assign value to race as applications come in, and warp the natural outcomes of the admissions process by placing undue value on the applications of minority students while paying no extra attention to white applicants.

Sure, you can argue that other parts of society are equally racist, but at least they cover it up. Admissions offices on the other hand, are very open about their racial bias in pursuit of “diversity.”

I hate to break it to all the Affirmative Action supporters out there, but this in itself is racism. And no, it’s not the made up definition of racism as “prejudice plus power.” It’s racist in the real sense of the word.

This is a pertinent issue because we’ve all experienced it in one way or another. All of us here at Santa Clara could’ve been given a boost or been negatively affected by our applications on the basis of our race.

In a very basic sense, Affirmative Action is racist and unfair. It assumes that without the university’s direct help, minority students would not have the academic credentials to get into whatever college or university they’re applying to.

It casts a shadow over their academic career of, “Could I have gotten in here without Affirmative Action?”, and that is a burden no minority student at Santa Clara should bear.

Of course most of them could’ve gotten in without Affirmative Action. It’s unfair to them that their academic qualifications are questioned just because they were subjected to a program they never asked for and don’t need.

Asians, perhaps so more than any other ethnic or racial group, are tremendously hurt by Affirmative Action. It’s a well-documented phenomenon that colleges raise standards for Asian applicants.

Since Asians tend to be higher achieving than other minority groups, institutions want to lower their acceptance rates to maintain, what they see an appropriate racial balance at these schools to be.

That is wrong, plain and simple. Our society should be constantly striving to erase boundaries between groups of people, not reinforce them. College admissions offices across the nation should begin to focus on the merits of a student’s application and if they truly deserve to attend the college they are applying to.

Leave behind this racist policy of Affirmative Action, and start to judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.

Andy Hudlow is a first year business major.

Articles in the opinion section represent the views of the individual authors only and not the views of The Santa Clara or Santa Clara University