My pet peeve on the affirmative action issue happens to lie in the arguments for it. I've heard too many people say 'minorities are equally qualified' and two sentences later say 'well, <type of minority> hasn't had the opprotunities that whites have had'.

Well, which one is it? It can't be both, so either there's some economic or social issues involved which are preventing minorities from reaching their potential, or else they are fully qualified but are being discriminated against. In either case, affirmative action is only a band-aid fix and it is the root problem which should be addressed.

In my sometimes no so humble opinion, affirmative action is creating the opposite of its intended result. While it was implemented to counter discrimination, instead it is simply adding to the already prevalent stereotypes of minorities in America, as well as causing resentment amongst employers, coworkers, other applicants, and caucasians in general.


Also, AA has no place in an academic environment. Period. Minority perons admitted to the University of Michigan's engineering program had an average GPA nearly 1 full point less than whites. If I remember correctly it was 2.8 and 3.7. That is just disgusting.