<p>If practiced properly, affirmative action does lower academic standards. Its purpose is to give students who aren't normally represented at the school a leg up in admissions. You can say admissions is "considering the obstacles that applicants overcame" but that's only necessary because they don't meet the traditional academic standards.
Claysoul- you can't give someone a leg up without adversing affecting the other people. At the end of the day, everyone is competing for the same spots, and if you give a leg up to one race, there are less spots available for the others. Also, given two equal applicants, if you always choose the minority race, how is that not racism? Isn't racism discriminating people based purely on the quality of race? If you have a different defintion, please share it. Just as a law that serves to help white people in admissions would be racist, so is a law that serves to help minority races. Please don't misunderstand me- I don't think affirmative action is as heinous as other forms of racism, but I dislike when people blind themselves to what it is. Affirmative action is racism. Just because you try to use it for a 'good cause,' that doesn't detract from this truth. (Similarly, just because you're white Claysoul and are working for some form of social justice, that doesn't change the truth)</p>